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Summary

Almost eight years after US-led forces invaded Iraq, the
country's transition to a functioning and sustainable democracy built on
rule of law is far from accomplished. The rights of Iraq's most
vulnerable citizens, especially women and detainees, are violated with
impunity, and those who would expose official malfeasance or abuses by armed groups
do so at enormous risk. Iraq's future as a society based on respect for
fundamental human rights depends in large part on whether Iraqi authorities
will adequately defend those rights and establish a credible national criminal
justice system embodying international standards with respect to torture, free
expression, and violence against women and other vulnerable sectors of society.

The 2003 invasion and its resulting chaos have exacted an
enormous toll on Iraq's citizens. Over the past eight years, violence has
claimed tens of thousands of Iraqi lives and millions continue to suffer from
the effects of insecurity. Iraq has made some recent progress as it has pulled
itself away from the civil strife that engulfed the country, especially in 2006
and 2007. But terror attacks increased again in the run-up to the March 2010
parliamentary elections and did not abate in the months that followed. Only in
November, eight months after those elections, did Iraq's political
parties finally agree to form a new coalition government– ending the
political crisis that has stunted progress on security and other fronts,
including human rights.

Human Rights Watch conducted on-the-ground research in April
2010, visiting seven cities across Iraq and interviewing 178 activists,
lawyers, journalists, religious leaders, detainees (former and current),
security officers, victims of violence, and ordinary Iraqis. We found that,
beyond the continuing violence and crimes associated with it, human rights
abuses are commonplace. This report presents those findings regarding
violations of the rights of women and other vulnerable populations, the right
to freedom of expression, and the right to be free from torture and
ill-treatment in the 2009-2010 period.

The Rights of Women and Girls

The deterioration of security has promoted a rise in tribal customs
and religiously-inflected political extremism, which have had a deleterious
effect on women's rights, both inside and outside the home. For Iraqi
women, who enjoyed some of the highest levels of rights protection and social
participation in the region before 1991, these have been heavy blows.

Militias promoting misogynist ideologies have targeted women
and girls for assassination, and intimidated them to stay out of public life.
Increasingly, women and girls are victimized in their own homes, sometimes
killed by their fathers, brothers and husbands for a wide variety of perceived
transgressions that allegedly shame the family or tribe. If they seek official
protection from violence in the home, women risk harassment and abuse from Iraq's
virtually all-male police and other security forces. Iraqi law protects
perpetrators of violence against women: Iraq's penal code considers "honorable
motives" to be a mitigating factor in crimes including murder. The code
also gives husbands a legal right to discipline their wives.

Trafficking in women and girls in and out of the country for
sexual exploitation is widespread. There have been no reported convictions for
trafficking, and a long-awaited anti-trafficking bill is on hold in the
parliament, awaiting revisions. Outside of Kurdistan, there are no
government-run shelters.

The many women who have fled sectarian or other violence,
who have been widowed, or who for other reasons are heads of households and
dependent on state aid are particularly vulnerable to abuse. Religious and
government institutions are sometimes complicit in their exploitation - in exchange for charity or
benefits, widows have been asked to engage in "pleasure marriages,"
a previously banned traditional practice that critics say is akin to
prostitution. The women who are coerced into the practice face stigmatization
and have no recourse.

Human Rights Watch calls on Iraq to immediately suspend and
proceed to repeal sections in the penal code that allow mitigation of sentences
on grounds of "honor" for violent crimes against women.

Freedom of Expression

In the months following the 2003 invasion, Iraq experienced
a media boom as hundreds of new publications and television and radio channels
sprung up across the country, and Iraqis gained access to satellite dishes and
the Internet. But media freedom was short-lived with the introduction of
restrictive legislative and other barriers and an upsurge in violence that made
Iraq one of the most the most dangerous countries in the world to work as a
journalist. While improvements in security since 2008 have reduced the murder
rate of media workers, journalism remains a hazardous occupation. Extremists
and unknown assailants continue to kill media workers and bomb their bureaus. In
addition, journalists now also have to contend with emboldened Iraqi and
Kurdish security forces and their respective image-conscious central and
regional political leaders. Increasingly, journalists find themselves harassed,
intimidated, threatened, arrested, and physically assaulted by security forces
attached to government institutions and political parties. Senior politicians
are quick to sue journalists and their publications for unflattering articles.

The government should amend vague legislative and regulatory
content-based restrictions that curtail the right to freedom of expression, and
direct security forces not to harass, abuse, and intimidate journalists.

Torture

After the fall of Saddam Hussein, Iraqis hoped that torture
as an instrument of state coercion would end. But US and British forces tortured
Iraqi detainees at their facilities across Iraq, most famously at Abu Ghraib.
And despite knowing there was a clear risk of torture, US authorities
transferred thousands of Iraqi detainees to Iraqi custody, where Iraqi security
forces have continued the torture tradition. Iraqi interrogators routinely
abuse detainees, regardless of sect, usually in order to coerce confessions. Interviews
with dozens of detainees transferred from a secret detention facility outside
Baghdad revealed the significant shortcomings of Iraq's criminal justice
system. Interrogators sodomized and whipped detainees, burned them with
cigarettes and pulled out their fingernails and teeth. Yet Iraq's prime
minister, instead of ordering a public inquiry and prosecuting those responsible
for the abuse, dismissed both our findings and those of the Ministry of Human
Rights as fictitious, and suspended the government's prison inspection
team that initially uncovered the abuse.

The government should launch independent and impartial investigations
into all allegations of torture and ill-treatment, and institute disciplinary
measures and criminal prosecution proceedings, as appropriate, against
officials at all levels who are responsible for the abuse of detainees. The
United States and other governments should assist with legal reforms in Iraq by
advising how to amend existing laws so that they are consistent with Iraq's
obligations under international human rights standards. The international
community should press Iraq to promptly investigate all allegations of torture
and ill-treatment and criminally prosecute officials who are responsible for
the abuse of detainees.

Marginalized Groups

Iraq today has numerous communities whose marginalization
has left them in dire straits.

Although the government has passed laws (including
constitutional safeguards) to protect some of these different communities, and
in some cases has instituted significant assistance programs, it is still
failing some of its most vulnerable citizens, such as internally displaced
persons, minorities and persons with disabilities. Many of the government's
assistance or protection programs are non-operational or sub-operational, and
insufficient to meet the needs of target populations, despite Iraq's
international and domestic commitments.

More than 1.5 million Iraqis fled their neighborhoods as
sectarian violence tore up their communities in 2006 and 2007. Thousands of
internally displaced persons now reside in squatter settlements without access
to basic necessities such as clean water, electricity and sanitation. An
over-stretched Ministry of Displacement has promised aid, but none of the more
than a dozen displaced persons we interviewed had received any. Human Rights
Watch calls on Iraq's government to develop a coherent national strategy
on refugees and internally displaced persons to facilitate their voluntary
return, local integration in places of displacement, or relocation to other
places in safety and dignity.

Armed groups proclaiming intolerant ideologies have
continued their assaults on minority communities, decimating Iraq's
indigenous populations, and forcing thousands to flee abroad with no plans to
return. The government has failed to stop such attacks targeting minority
groups, including Sabian Mandaeans, Chaldo-Assyrians, Yazidis, and Shabaks. To
end a climate of impunity, the government must conduct thorough and impartial
investigations when attacks occur and bring those responsible to justice.

Years of armed conflict have resulted in thousands of war
amputees and other persons with disabilities. Stigmatized, unable to find work,
get adequate medical care, or obtain new prostheses and wheelchairs, persons
with disabilities in Iraq find themselves relegated to the margins of society.
The government needs to ensure access to education and employment, strengthen
health-care services, and establish rehabilitation and psycho-social support
facilities.

Methodology

The report is based on a four-week fact-finding mission in
April 2010 in which Human Rights Watch visited the cities of Baghdad, Basra,
Tikrit, Najaf, Karbala, Amara, and Sulaimaniyya to examine the human rights
situation seven years after the US-led invasion.

Human Rights Watch interviewed 178 Iraqis, including victims
of human rights abuses as well as rights activists, representatives of
nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), journalists, lawyers, political and
religious leaders, and government and security officials about violence against
women and minorities, the plight of persons with disabilities and internally
displaced persons, freedom of expression, torture, detention conditions, and
enforced disappearances. We chose these topics in consultation with Iraqi human
rights and other NGO activists. We conducted interviews, mainly in Arabic via an
Iraqi translator, both privately and in group settings, at the offices of NGOs,
homes of victims, community centers, schools, detention and prison facilities,
and religious sites. Iraqi NGOs assisted in identifying persons for us to
interview.

In addition, Human Rights Watch interviewed
five women in a prison, a detention center and a government-run shelter in
Sulaimaniyya and Arbil in June 2010. Human Rights Watch also conducted follow-up telephone interviews and consulted official
documents provided by victims and NGOs. We informed all persons
interviewed of the purpose of the interview, its voluntary nature, and the ways
in which the data would be collected and used. The names and other identifying
information of most of our interlocutors have been withheld in the interests of
their personal security.

The report also draws on meetings in Baghdad with then-Human
Rights Minister Wijdan Michael Salim and other government officials in the Ministries
of Human Rights and Defense that focused mainly on trafficking of and violence
against women, torture, and government restrictions on media. Most of those
meetings occurred during the last week of April after we returned to Baghdad
from visiting the other cities. In November, Human Rights Watch sent a detailed
letter with our findings and recommendations to the Prime Minister's
Office and requested the government's response (see annex). The Prime
Minister's Office acknowledged receipt of the letter on November 14,
2010, but as of January 15, 2011, it had not responded to the specific issues
raised.

I.
Rights of Women and Girls

"The biggest victims in Iraq are young women. They
are widowed, trafficked, forced into early marriages, beaten at home and
sexually harassed if they leave the house, which is a new phenomenon in Iraq."

- Women's rights activist, Baghdad, April
8, 2010.

Background

For much of the last century, the rights of Iraqi women and
girls have been relatively better protected than in other countries in the
region.[1]
After seizing power in 1968, the Ba'ath Party promulgated laws
specifically aimed at improving the status of women in both the public and
private spheres as a way to consolidate its authority and to achieve rapid
economic growth despite labor shortages.[2]

The Iraqi Provisional Constitution, drafted in 1970,
formally guaranteed equal rights to women before the law.[3] In
1976, the government passed a compulsory education law mandating that both
sexes attend school through the primary level.[4] In 1979, the
literacy gap between males and females began to narrow after the government
passed legislation for the eradication of illiteracy.[5]

The Iraqi government also passed labor and employment laws
to ensure that women were granted equal opportunities in the civil service
sector, maternity benefits, and freedom from harassment in the workplace.[6]

The government also made modest changes to the personal
status law in 1978, giving women extended custody rights in divorce.[7]
The amendments also changed the conditions under which a woman could seek divorce
and regulations concerning polygamous marriages and inheritance.[8]
These reforms reflected the Ba'ath Party's attempt to modernize
Iraqi society and supplant loyalty to extended families and tribal society with
loyalty to the government and ruling party.[9]

After the 1991 Gulf War, the position of women within Iraqi
society rapidly deteriorated as Saddam Hussein embraced Islamic and tribal
traditions as a political tool to consolidate his waning power. The government
reversed many of the positive steps advancing women's and girls'
status in Iraqi society.[10]

Compounding the problem, the UN sanctions imposed after the
1991 Gulf war had a disproportionate impact on women and girls.[11] For
example, the gender gap in school enrollment (and subsequently female illiteracy)
increased dramatically as families facing financial stress elected to keep
their girls at home. During the sanctions years, the mortality rate for
children and pregnant women jumped; between 1989 and 2002, the number of women
who died during childbirth almost tripled.[12] The poor economic
situation, coupled with a population imbalance as a result of male casualties
from combat, created conditions whereby families wanted to give up girls
quickly, fueling child marriages and trafficking in women and girls. During
this time poorer families were more inclined to send their girls abroad in
arranged marriages with few preconditions in the hopes that the girls would
lead better lives and send money home.[13]

Women and girls also suffered from increasing restrictions
on their freedom of mobility and protections under the law.[14] In
an attempt to attract support from conservative and religious groups and tribal
leaders, the government introduced decrees and legislation negatively impacting
women's legal status in the labor code, criminal justice system, and
personal status laws.[15]
Security forces subjected female political activists and relatives of
dissidents to gender-specific abuses, including sexual violence.[16]

The insecurity created by the US-led 2003 occupation of
Iraq, followed by sectarian strife that engulfed the country, further eroded
women's rights.

In the months following the invasion, Human Rights Watch
documented a wave of sexual violence and abductions against women in Baghdad.[17]
At the time, women and girls told Human Rights Watch that insecurity and fear
of rape and abduction kept them in their homes, out of schools, and away from
work. Although assailants kidnapped many men as well, the consequences for
women and girls were worse due to concerns of family "honor," which
is predicated on the moral standing and behavior of female members of the
family. For women and girls, the trauma of an abduction continued well after
release— the shame associated with the event was a lasting stigma because of
the presumption that abductors had raped or sexually assaulted the woman or
girl during her ordeal, regardless of whether she was actually raped.

In Basra, lawlessness and Iraqi militia activity escalated
in September 2007 after British forces withdrew their troops from Basra Palace
to the airport on the outskirts of the city.[19]

Until the Iraqi army's "Charge of the Knights"
operation in Basra in March 2008, militias terrorized women in the city. In
2007 alone, vigilantes killed 133 women, claiming religious or customary
sanction. According to Basra security forces, extremists deemed 79 of the
victims to be "violating Islamic teachings." Some 47 other women
died in honor killings and seven were targeted for their political
affiliations. "The women of Basra are being horrifically murdered and
then dumped in the garbage with notes saying they were killed for violating Islamic
teachings," Bassem al-Mussawi, head of the security committee and a
member of Basra's Provincial Council, said at the time. "Sectarian
groups are trying to force a strict interpretation of Islam ... They send
their vigilantes to roam the city, hunting down those who are deemed to be
behaving against their [the extremists'] own interpretations."[20]

Maj.-Gen. Abd al-Jalil Khalaf, who was sent to Basra in June
2007 as the city's chief of police, told Human Rights Watch that
extremists were in complete control of the city.

The ages of women who were murdered ranged anywhere from 14
years to 60. Before the women were killed, they were tortured and sometimes had
their teeth or eyes extracted. The corpses had bruises all over their bodies.
Some had their breasts cut off or arms amputated and their hair was shaven off.
Most of the victims had terrified looks frozen on their faces. And none of
their families came to collect the bodies. Not only did the police not
investigate these crimes, my officers were directly implicated in some of the
killings since the militia had infiltrated the police force ... These men,
who committed such atrocious acts, cannot be considered human."[21]

He said it was impossible for the police force to
investigate the crimes and bring the perpetrators to justice since armed groups
had infiltrated a large portion of the force and were involved in many of the
crimes. Although the worst perpetrators have been transferred or removed from
the police force, he said none of the officers implicated in these crimes have
been held accountable.

Targeting Female Leaders and Activists

A women's rights activist who led public campaigns
against domestic violence and other women's issues in Najaf told Human
Rights Watch that she started to receive numerous death threats via text
messages in August 2007.[22]
The messages were variations on the same theme: "Oh, you bitch, stop your
work or we will kill you." This activist was well-known since she
published articles in her own name. In September 2007, assailants bombed her
house, damaging it and 12 others in the neighborhood, she told us. She
continued to receive threats in the weeks following the explosion. She said the
police took some photos of the wreckage but did not follow up with a proper
investigation, so she tried to pursue the case on her own by hiring a private
investigator to determine who was sending her the threatening text messages. "The
police did not do anything to help us or investigate the attack because the
perpetrators were extremists and they were afraid. All the police would tell us
is 'You're lucky to still be alive.'"

Today, armed groups continue to target female political and
community leaders and activists. This threat of violence has had a debilitating
impact on the daily lives of women and girls generally and has reduced their
participation in public life. It has had profound consequences for women's
economic participation, as many female professionals, including doctors,
journalists, activists, engineers, politicians, teachers, and civil servants
are forced to cease working fearing for their safety.

On November 12, 2009, an assailant shot Safa 'Abd
al-Amir, the principal of a girls school in Baghdad, four times.[23]
The attack happened shortly after she announced that she was running in the
national elections as a Communist Party candidate. After al-Amir left her
school in the al-Ghadir district at about 1:30 p.m., a maroon-colored BMW
approached her vehicle from behind to the side; an assailant shot her three
times in the face and once in the arm. She did not immediately realize what had
happened to her since the gunman used a silencer.

Despite her injuries, al-Amir managed to leave her car and
walk barefoot for about 20 meters. When police arrived at the scene, they
initially feared she was a suicide bomber because she was drenched in blood.
"I couldn't answer the questions because they had shot my mouth –
I just kept pointing to my mouth," al-Amir related.[24]

After numerous operations, including one to reconstruct her
jaw, she is still undergoing treatment. "They tried to kill me because I'm
a political woman," she said. "According to the extremists'
beliefs, an unveiled progressive woman running for political office sets a bad
example for other women."[25]
She said the police conducted a superficial investigation, which comprised only
obtaining her statement in response to a few questions and no follow-up. She
said the police either did not care or were afraid to investigate. Authorities
have made no arrests in the case.

Iraq's government has acknowledged that armed groups
have posed a major challenge to the government's human rights policy and
have had a detrimental effect on women in particular. However, the government
said its law enforcement plan had succeeded in bringing about a marked reduction
in violence and crime especially in Baghdad since the second half of 2008,
although it said the dangers of terrorism remain.[26]

In May 2009, the regional satellite network MBC aired a
preview of an upcoming show about the trafficking of women in Iraq, which
interviewed an activist from the Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq
(OWFI). Afterward, OWFI learned from MBC that Iraq's Ministry of Culture
contacted the television station to stop the full show's airing because
it objected to the content. Another TV station affiliated with the Iraqi
government criticized OWFI and televised pictures of OWFI activists, circled in
black, with a caption, "These are the ones who humiliate Iraqi women."
OWFI members said the publicity forced them to temporarily close their office
and keep a low profile, fearing violence from militia forces. "We became
the criminals and the enemies of the state," said one OWFI activist.[27]

Trafficking
and Forced Prostitution

Since the 2003 invasion, widespread security deterioration and
displacement, financial hardship, social disintegration, and the dissolution of
the rule of law and state authority have all contributed to an increase in
trafficking and forced prostitution. There are no official statistics or
estimates regarding the number of women who are trafficked within the country
or internationally, but anecdotal evidence suggests that the major destination
points are Syria, the United Arab Emirates and other Gulf countries. According
to some women activists, the number is at least in the hundreds if not
thousands.[28]
According to Forced Migration Review, between 2003 and 2007, nearly
3,500 Iraqi women have gone missing, with a portion likely trafficked into
prostitution.[29]

Basra's former
police chief Abd al-Jalil Khalaf, local human rights organizations that assist
trafficked women, and the ex-wife of an Iraqi trafficker all told Human Rights
Watch that traffickers transport their victims overseas by land, sea or air
mainly out of Baghdad and Basra by different mechanisms.[30]
In some cases, women are forced into prostitution through false promises of
legitimate employment overseas. These women realize they are duped only after
they arrive at their destination country and their trafficker confiscates their
passports. Women trafficked by this route generally leave Iraq voluntarily,
believing that they will work abroad in restaurants or as secretaries, only to
end up as "dancers" in hotels or nightclubs.[31]

Traffickers also
transport women and girls internally and internationally through arranged and
forced marriages. Families marry off their young women and girls to older men
from outside their community who are either agents or brokers. Often the girl's
family coerces her into marriage, hoping to escape desperate economic
circumstances or to pay debts. Other times families are unaware of the fate
that awaits their daughters. "These rich foreigners come, who seem normal
and look respectable, and it turns out not to be the case but the families only
find out later," said one women's rights activist in Basra. "Many
of these poor girls who think they are escaping their hard life in Iraq end up
in Syria dancing in nightclubs."[32]

Typically, after the broker or agent takes his "wife"
or "wives" to a destination point, he divorces the woman, sells her,
and returns to Iraq to claim new victims. The younger the girl, the more
lucrative the profits— the highest demand is for girls under 16.
Traffickers reportedly sell girls as young as 11 and 12, for as much as
$30,000, while older "used" girls and women can be bought for as
little as $2,000.[33]
The traffickers are aided by sophisticated criminal networks that are able to
forge documents and pay corrupt officials to remove impediments.[34]

With the help of the Iraqi Al-Amal Association, an
independent human rights organization, we interviewed Um Hassan, a young woman
in Baghdad who unwittingly married into a family of traffickers.[35]
She told Human Rights Watch that the girls, aged between 13 and 21, never had
any time off, even if they were sick. The mother-in-law's husband would
beat the girls if they refused to work or disobeyed.[36]

Um Hassan's mother-in-law took all of the girls'
earnings (about 2,000 and 3,000 dirhams, or US$550 to $800 per trick) and
confiscated any gifts or gold the men gave them. When any of the girls became
pregnant, the mother-in-law would administer seven pills to abort the fetus. The
girls told Um Hassan they were unhappy but some believed that even if they
could escape back to their families, their brothers and fathers would kill
them. None of them had possession of their passports or any money.[37]

Often, Iraqi women and girls targeted for abuse are
impoverished and unable to read or write. Some have run away from home to
escape abuse or avoid a forced marriage.

After one 14-year-old girl from Baghdad ran away with her
cousin to Karbala in early 2010, she was referred for work to a woman who
worked at a hair salon. After they met, she says the woman took her home and
drugged her with sedatives in her juice.[38] When she woke up
she found blood on her clothes and between her legs. The woman then took the
girl to Sulaimaniyya and told her, "If you don't go with men, I
will kill you."[39]
The kidnapper's mother bought the girl and held her captive at a house
for a month with 12 other Arab and Kurdish girls. There, the girl had to sleep
with one or two men daily. Later, after police arrested the girl, a judge
imprisoned her for two months. She was then released to a women's shelter
in Sulaimaniyya, where we interviewed her. She fears that if she leaves the
shelter her brothers will kill her.[40]

Another young woman, Zahra H., fled to Baghdad with her
sister when she was 19, hoping to escape poverty in Basra.[41] But
without any employment prospects, her situation in Baghdad became even more
desperate— she had to beg on the streets to survive. In 2007, she
accepted an invitation to stay with a woman in return for sex work. She lived
and worked from the brothel with four other women in similar circumstances,
having sex with between 10 and 15 men every day. All of her earnings went to
her pimp. After two weeks, she attempted to leave but her pimp prevented her,
saying she first had to pay three million dinars ($2,500 US) for clothes and
rent that he claimed she owed. After weeks of beatings from the brothel operator's
husband, Zahra tried escaping but the husband shot her twice in the arm and
once in the back. She did not press charges because she feared that if she did,
her abusers would harm her sister who lived in the same neighborhood. Three
years later, despite two operations, she still has massive swelling in her arm
as a result.[42]

Penalizing
Victims

Women's rights groups told Human Rights Watch that
trafficked women (and victims of sexual violence) often find themselves in
jail. The government provides no assistance to victims repatriated from abroad,
and Iraqi authorities prosecute and convict trafficking victims for unlawful
acts committed as a result of being trafficked; for example, some victims who
were trafficked abroad using false documents were arrested and prosecuted upon
their return to Iraq.[43]
Apart from document and passport fraud, victims are also jailed for
prostitution, while authorities ignore their abusers.[44]

A 30-year-old divorced woman from Baghdad told Human Rights
Watch that during a 15-day vacation in May 2010, four men kidnapped her while
she was shopping for clothes in a souk in Sulaimaniyya.[45] She
spoke with us at the detention center where she had spent the previous month.
The men took her to a secluded spot in the mountains and each raped her twice
over the course of the day. "They beat me severely on my legs. They even
beat me with their shoes. I screamed and yelled but no one could hear me, no
one could come to get me." She thought her ordeal had ended when they
were discovered by police. However, authorities have released the four men on
bail while she still languishes in the detention center on prostitution
charges, unable to afford bail.[46]

In some cases, women and girls request to remain in
detention centers even after a sentence is complete, fearful that their
families will kill them. One 14-year-old girl originally from Rania said she
ran away from home to Arbil after her parents had her engaged to a cousin.[47]
She accepted money and accommodation from a man in exchange for sex. An Arbil
court convicted her of prostitution and gave her a six-month sentence. When
authorities released her to a shelter because of her age, she insisted on
staying in the prison, where Human Rights Watch interviewed her. She said she
considered the prison more secure. Seven months after her initial arrest, she
says she does not know what to do. "My father says that he will kill me
if he ever sees me."[48]

Victims of sexual violence and trafficking have
well-grounded fears of reprisals, social ostracism, rejection or physical
violence from their families, and a lack of confidence that authorities have
the will or capacity to provide the support or protection required. Police are
generally reluctant to investigate cases of sexual violence, trafficking, and
abductions.[49]

One young woman from al-Kut told Human Rights Watch that her
father severely beat her on several occasions after she refused to marry her
cousin. In 2003, when she was 14, after a particularly rough beating, she fled
to Baghdad to live with her sister. In October 2006, two men in a car kidnapped
her on the streets of Baghdad. Security forces thwarted the abduction at a
checkpoint and detained the three. During the investigation, police beat her
and told her to drop the case. She says the police also tried to sexually
assault her but she resisted. After additional beatings she revised her witness
statement to stop the abuse and police released the two perpetrators.[50]

Policing in Iraq is almost exclusively a male profession,
and officers give low priority to allegations of sexual violence and
trafficking compared with other crimes, such as murder and theft.[51]
Women's groups complain that, too often, police blame the victim, doubt
her credibility, show indifference, and conduct inadequate investigations. For
these reasons, many women are reluctant to file a complaint.[52]

Also, in rural communities, the loyalty of many police
officers is first to their tribe, making impartial investigations a challenge.
"We cannot rely on them to do investigations," said a female lawyer
in Qurna. "As long as police remain loyal to the tribes, there will be no
justice here."[53]

Government Response to Trafficking

The government has done little to combat trafficking in
girls and women: there have been no successful prosecutions of criminals
engaged in human trafficking, no comprehensive program to tackle the problem,
and negligible support for victims, as noted above.[54]

The Government of Iraq
has no figures on how many women and girls are trafficked. According to an
official in the Ministry of Human Rights, the ministry tried to start a
trafficking database that would have helped the central and provincial
governments better understand the magnitude and scope of the problem by
tracking numbers of trafficking incidents, locations where victims are
recruited from, and trafficking routes. The government official told Human
Rights Watch that because the issue is "taboo", other government
institutions, including the Supreme Judicial Council, the Ministries of Labor, Interior,
Foreign Affairs and Planning, and provincial councils responded by stating they
had no information to provide or that the issue was just too sensitive.[55] "The issue of trafficking is extremely
sensitive and our communities try to cover it up," one women's
rights defender in Basra told Human Rights Watch. "We are a tribal people
and because of pride and honor, people do not want to talk about this."[56]

The Human Rights Ministry official implied that conservative
religious parties may not want to acknowledge the problem because they fear
restraints on their religious practices.[57] Traffickers have
been known to exploit traditional marriage models, such as mut'ah
marriages or marrying more than one woman or girl consecutively.[58]
He said the government will have a difficult time combating trafficking because
of how lucrative it is. "Corruption in Iraq is very big, including
members of the judiciary and lawyers," said the official. "Traffickers
are big business, and they are powerful. They have the influence and the means
to bribe those in power."[59]

Women's rights activists blame corruption within the
security forces for enabling traffickers and pimps to operate with impunity. On
one occasion, a female pimp with her husband— a police captain— knocked on the door of an NGO that
runs an underground shelter for abused women in an attempt to retrieve her
prostitute.[60]

In a March 2010 report, the Organization of Women's
Freedom in Iraq documented more than 70 cases of trafficking and forced
prostitution in 2008 and estimated that at least 200 women and girls are sold
into sexually slavery each year.[61]
The report published confidential documents that the organization received from
a source within the police department concerning an investigation into a
criminal ring in Diyala responsible for trafficking 128 women to Saudi Arabia
through Mosul in 2007. Traffickers in Diyala earned between $3,000 and $5,000
per victim. Members of the criminal ring allegedly included two members of the
Diyala Governorate Council, one security officer, and three police. No one was
charged and authorities closed the case.

The government has not yet introduced new legislation to
counter the problem (the penal code lacks specific provisions on trafficking),
and existing Iraqi laws have proven ineffective and in some cases punitive toward
victims. The 2005 Constitution prohibits forced labor, slavery, slave trade,
trafficking in women or children, and sex trade, but there are no laws to
implement this prohibition.

An April 2010 draft of the government's anti-trafficking
law would outlaw "recruiting, transporting, quartering or receiving"
individuals with an intention of "exploiting them in acts of terrorism,
armed conflicts, prostitution or sexual exploitation, unpaid or forced labor,
servitude, mendicancy, human organs trading or as subjects for medical
experimentation."[62]
The draft law imposes tough penalties, including life imprisonment, and a fine
of between 15 and 25 million dinars (US$13,000 and $21,000) for traffickers if
the victim "is less that 18, or a female, or is a person with a
disability."[63]
Criminal acts that result in the death of a victim are punishable by death.[64]

Women's rights groups say the provisions in the law
are too vague and provide no mechanisms (such as shelters or social and health
services) to help female victims. It is unclear how authorities can effectively
use the law when traffickers rely on legal means, such as fake or temporary
marriages, to transport women.

Wijdan Michael Salim, the Human Rights Minister at the time,
told Human Rights Watch that the draft is a work in progress. The government is
revising it to put a greater focus on protecting the victims of trafficking as
well as punishing the perpetrators, she said.[65]

Some women's rights groups are not convinced that the
law, even with improvements, will have an impact. "Even if the best
trafficking law is passed it will not be enough," said a women's
rights advocate in Baghdad. "Iraqi police need to have sensitivity
training. They have no idea how to handle traffickers and their victims."[66]

Family
Violence

Violence at home against girls and women happens mainly at
the hands of their husbands, fathers, brothers, sons, and male extended family
members. The men sometimes act on the orders of tribal elders who decide on
punishments for women deemed to have infringed traditional codes of honor. Such
infringements can include a woman or girl dating, marrying against her family's
wishes, being the victim of sexual violence, losing virginity before marriage,
seeking a divorce against her family's wishes, engaging in an
extramarital affair, and refusing an arranged marriage.

Iraq's Ministry of Women's Affairs has
unsuccessfully attempted to repeal discriminatory provisions of the penal code
that give husbands legal authority to "discipline" their wives
(article 41) and reduced sentences for honor killings (article 409). Acting in
response to a legislative reform initiative spearheaded by a consortium of
women legal practitioners, the Ministry recommended in December 2009 that the
Ministry of Justice to repeal some of the contentious provisions. According to
information received by UNAMI, the Minister of Justice allegedly rejected
amendments to article 409 stating that the provision was consistent with Iraqi
cultural practices.[67]

Honor crimes

Iraq's penal code allows lenient punishment for
so-called honor killings on grounds of provocation or if the accused had "honorable
motives."[68]
According to the penal code's article 128, "[T]he commission of an
offence with honorable motives or in response to the unjustified and serious
provocation of a victim of an offence is considered a mitigating excuse."
Article 130 allows the court to reduce a death penalty to one years
imprisonment and to commute a life sentence to six months imprisonment where
there are such mitigating circumstances.[69]
Additionally, Article 409 limits the prison sentence to less than three years
for an honor killing of a wife by her husband.

The United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) has
characterized honor killings as a serious concern in Iraq, particularly in
Iraqi Kurdistan.[70]
The Kurdistan Regional Government's Ministry for Human Rights reported
that for 2008 as a whole there were 163 honor killings and 166 cases the
previous year.[71]

The practice is not limited to Kurdistan. In its most recent
report, covering the second half of 2009, UNAMI drew attention to reports of
alleged honor killings perpetrated in the disputed Kirkuk province.[72]

Women's rights groups say that honor killings remain
prevalent in southern Iraq. Hajar L., a women's rights activist in Basra,
still vividly remembers the day she witnessed an honor killing as a teenager 14
years ago.[73]
She described to us what she witnessed to illustrate the nature of the crimes
and their social entrenchment.

Her 35-year-old neighbor, whose husband refused to divorce
her, was having an affair. After she was found with the man, her father, who
was a mukhtar (head of a neighborhood), along with her brother and cousin,
descended on her house carrying daggers. "We all heard the woman's
screams but none of us did anything," Hajar said. There was no running
water in the house so, after the attack, the men came outside to wash their
bloody daggers. When they realized she was still alive, they went back in and
finished the job. They emerged a second time, carrying one of the women's
dismembered hands. Female relatives started to ululate (helheleh). One
of killers raised the dismembered hand and announced to the crowd, "We
are from this tribe, and we have cleansed our honor and washed our shame,"
and then tossed the hand at the feet of a tribal elder.

Because there were so many witnesses, she said, the police
had to make an arrest. The brother confessed that he acted alone but received
only a six-month sentence under Iraq's penal code, still in effect today.

Today, Hajar works at a community center for women in Basra
where she has documented dozens of incidents of violence against women over the
past two years. She says that since 2003, honor crimes have increased because
of the poor security situation. "The worse the security situation gets,
the more people go back to their tribe for help. When there is a lack of
security, people revert to tribal justice."[74]

Domestic
violence

Domestic violence has
always been a problem in Iraq, but women's rights groups say that years
of armed conflict and economic hardships have contributed to increased violence
within families. The proliferation of weapons has also intensified domestic
violence and increased the risks of serious injury or death for women.[75] The issue of domestic violence has not
received the attention it deserves, women's groups say. "In
conflict areas, women's issues are never a priority," said one
human rights defender in Baghdad.[76] "Who wants to talk
about domestic violence when violence is everywhere and people are dying on the
streets?"

A female lawyer and women's advocate from Qurna told
us that the economic situation is forcing women to stay in dysfunctional or
abusive relationships out of necessity. "If they don't, who will
provide for them or their children? So accepting domestic violence is
preferable to being poor."[77]

Social attitudes that stigmatize female divorcees also help
keep women in abusive relationships. "No matter how badly her husband
treats her, some women believe it is worse to get a divorce," one female
journalist said.[78]

For some, the beatings are so harsh that they choose divorce
even if it leads to stigmatization. A 55-year-old gynecologist in Baghdad told
us that she had to leave her marriage because of the level of abuse she
suffered.[79]
During one episode, in the fall of 2009, she was hospitalized after her husband
smashed her eyeglasses on her face, injuring her cornea. She said that attack
has affected her eyesight to this day. Her husband also severely beat her
daughters and one of them has recurring headaches after he knocked out three of
her teeth. This daughter continues to sleep with only one side of her face on
the pillow because of her painful facial injuries. After the woman filed a
complaint, police arrested her husband, but he received a suspended sentence
after a plea bargain. The women's rights group who put us in touch with
this woman told us the case is remarkable because abused women in Iraq rarely
make a police complaint against their husbands.

According to a 2008 World Health Organization survey on
family health in Iraq, 83 percent of married Iraqi women interviewed said they
were subjected to "controlling behavior" by their husbands,
including insisting on knowing where they were at all times, and 21 percent
reported physical violence.[80]
In a 2003 study in southern Iraq by Physicians for Human Rights, more than half
of the surveyed women and men agreed that a husband has the right to beat a
disobedient wife.[81]

This level of violence within marriage is underpinned by
Iraqi legislation—Iraq's penal code effectively condones domestic
violence under article 41(1). The "punishment of a wife by her husband"
is considered a legal right on par with disciplining children, according to the
text of the provision. While the penal code specifies that such punishment is
permissible "within certain limits prescribed by law or by custom,"
there are no specified legal limits. According to a lawyer in Najaf who
provides legal assistance to women's groups, it is "very difficult"
to take any legal action against men who abuse their wives. If the woman does
not show marks or scars from abuse, the case is automatically rejected.[82]

Female-headed
Households, Widows, and Other Vulnerable Women

The International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC)
estimates there are between one and three million female-headed households in
Iraq as a result of decades of war and violence.[83]

Traditionally, a widow in Iraq would return to her family or
in-laws after the death of her husband. But increasingly families are unable to
provide any help. Without their husbands or support from their families, these
widows become socially isolated and desperate for ways to support their
children.

The Iraqi government has developed a social welfare program,
which includes pensions for widows amounting to 50,000 to 120,000 dinars (US$43
to $102), according to the number of dependent children.[84] Widows
are also entitled to additional compensation of up to 2.5 million dinars
(US$2,100) for a spouse killed because of "terrorism."

Aid experts have said the allowance is insufficient—especially
for rural widows who typically have more children and fewer sources of income
than urban widows. A 2010 survey by the International Organization for
Migration found that 74 percent of 1,355 female-headed displaced families who
have returned to their places of origin are struggling to secure adequate
nutrition for their families.[85]

Many widows do not
receive an allowance because of corruption and government institutions'
lack of capacity to reach rural areas. Others, lacking education and documents,
do not even bother applying— the
process is overly complex and requires excessive amounts of documentation. A
2008 survey conducted by the ICRC in cooperation with a local NGO in one
district of Baghdad found that only 10 percent of eligible widows received a
widow's pension.[86] Another survey conducted by
Oxfam and the Iraqi NGO Al-Amal in five governorates across the country showed
that 76 percent of widows did not get any government pension.[87]

In February 2009, the State Minister for Women's
Affairs, Nawal al-Samarraie, briefly resigned in protest against the meager
resources given to her ministry, stating that the needs of three million
widows, namely women whose families have lost their breadwinners in the
conflicts since the early 1980s, are the country's most pressing issue.[88]
"I have only an office, not a full ministry, with insufficient resources
and limited authority … My mission is very hard, if not impossible, to achieve,"
she said.[89]

Because of the extreme financial pressures on displaced and
female-headed families, local human rights activists say they are seeing an
increase in child marriages, forced prostitution and trafficking in women and
girls as described above.[90]

Numerous activists and women in Najaf, Karbala and Basra
told us that the practice of mut'ah, or temporary marriage, has
grown since 2003 because of poverty and a resurgence of religious parties and
tribal customs. Impoverished and lacking employment opportunities, widows and
girls, often from displaced families, are being pressured into these types of
contracts as a way to lessen their families' poverty, according to women's
rights activists.

More troublingly, women's rights groups in the south
report that men working for local government, religious institutions, and
charities use their positions to pressure widows to practice mut'ah
in exchange for any charity or services. "They are exploited for pleasure
marriages by the very institutions that are supposed to be helping them,"
one of the defenders said. [91]

Two women's rights NGOs in Najaf reported the same
phenomenon. "The government offices here encourage women, especially
widows, to practice mut'ah, and have made it much more socially
acceptable," according to a women's right advocate. "If they
apply for a job at an office or try to claim benefits as a widow, they are
pressured to practice mut'ah in exchange for the job or benefits.
Most of the men are already married— in Najaf, a man can have four wives
and temporary marriages on top of it."[92]

According to the Minister of Human Rights, such cases of
exploitation—if genuine—are rare. "These things are not
easy to prove ... No one has come to us and told us about this issue. We
can't do anything about it if they don't complain to us. If it has
happened it is not frequent, but only isolated cases."[93]

A 32-year-old woman who
fled with her young children and abusive husband to Najaf from Baghdad during
the sectarian conflict attested to the growing acceptance of mut'ah.
She spends much of each day collecting cans with her girls as a way to generate
income for the family.[94] "My husband would beat
me and my daughters severely and not allow us to eat if we didn't go out
to collect cans." She and her daughters earn 2,000 dinars a day ($1.70). She
said that when she is working outside, men criticize her and offer to help her
through mut'ah.[95]

A 33-year old divorcee in Najaf told us that she is
constantly harassed. "When I went to apply for social assistance, the
officer kept putting obstacles in my way and telling me to come back tomorrow.
When I would come back the next day, he would offer me assistance in exchange
for mut'ah." After getting a job at a religious library in
Najaf, she said the harassment did not stop and she was constantly pressured
for mut'ah. "That's why I developed a complex against
religion, not because I'm against Islam but because of these religious
men who keep harassing me and especially the religious institutions that
encourage them. I have developed a phobia of men."[96]

A senior Shia cleric in Baghdad said Human Rights Watch had
not seen any evidence that religious authorities in the south were pushing
widows to practice mut'ah, but added that he was not surprised
since some Imams have "betrayed their religion and their country."[97]

International
Standards Protecting the Rights of Women and Girls

Iraq is a state party to major international human rights
treaties protecting the rights of women and girls.[98]

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
(ICCPR), which Iraq ratified without reservation, obligates states parties to
respect and ensure the rights recognized in the ICCPR without discrimination
based on sex (article 2), to ensure the equal rights of men and women (article
3) to provide equal protection before the law (article 26) and to ensure the
protection of children as required by his or her status as a minor (article
24).

Iraq is a state party to the Convention on the Elimination
of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). In 1992, the committee of
experts that reviews state compliance with the convention enumerated a wide
range of obligations for states related to ending sexual violence, including
ensuring appropriate treatment for victims in the justice system, counseling
and support services, and medical and psychological assistance to victims.[99]

CEDAW also recognizes that many women's rights abuses
emanate from society and culture, and thus requires governments to take
appropriate measures to "modify the social and cultural patterns of
conduct of men and women, with a view to achieving the elimination of
prejudices and customary and all other practices which are based on the idea of
the inferiority or the superiority of either of the sexes or on stereotyped
roles for men and women."[100]
CEDAW is distinguished from other international treaties by its expansive and
comprehensive definition of discrimination against women (article 1).[101]

The 1993 Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against
Women (DEVAW) defines violence against women as "any act of gender-based
violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or
psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts,
coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in
private life."[102]
The declaration urges states to condemn violence against women and to refrain
from invoking traditional or religious explanations to avoid their obligations
under international human rights law.[103]

International human rights law recognizes women's
right to be free from nonconsensual sexual relations. The right to sexual
autonomy for women is reflected in a number of international declarations and
conference documents.[104]
Sexual autonomy is closely linked to the rights to physical security and bodily
integrity.

The Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which Iraq
acceded to in 1994, also sets forth standards for the protection of girls from
sexual violence and exploitation. State parties must undertake measures to
protect children "from all forms of sexual exploitation and sexual abuse,"
and in particular take all appropriate measures to prevent "[t]he
inducement or coercion of a child to engage in any unlawful sexual activity"
and "[t]he exploitative use of children in prostitution or other unlawful
sexual practices."[105]
States must take all appropriate measures to promote physical and psychological
recovery and social integration of a child victim of any form of neglect,
exploitation, or abuse as well as torture or any other form of cruel, inhuman,
or degrading treatment or punishment.[106] States should
also take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social and educational
measures to protect children from all forms of physical or mental violence,
maltreatment or exploitation, including sexual abuse, while in the care of
parents or any person who has the care of the child.[107] And
states must also take all effective and appropriate measures with a view to
abolishing traditional practices prejudicial to the health of children.[108]

International law requires states to address persistent
violations of human rights and take measures to prevent their occurrence. With
respect to violations of bodily integrity, states have a duty to prosecute
abuse, whether an agent of the state or a private citizen commits the
violation.[109]
When states routinely fail to respond to evidence of sexual violence and abuse
or abduction of women and girls, they send the message that such attacks can be
committed with impunity.

National
Standards Concerning the Rights of Women and Girls

Iraq's Constitution, passed by referendum in October
2005, contains the following provisions with respect to women's rights
and gender equality:[110]

Article 14 states that "Iraqis are equal before the law
without discrimination based on gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, origin,
color, religion, sect, belief or opinion, or economic or social status."

Article 16 states that "[e]qual opportunities shall
be guaranteed to all Iraqis, and the state shall ensure that the necessary
measures to achieve this are taken."

Article 41 provides that "Iraqis are free in their
commitment to their personal status according to their religions, sects,
beliefs, or choices, and this shall be regulated by law." Some
religious parties have interpreted the article as calling for the
cancellation of the 1959 Personal Status Code and establishing a new
regime in its place.

Prostitution is a criminal offense in Iraq. The
Anti-Prostitution Law introduced in 1988 included a minimum penalty of three
months and a maximum of two years for women guilty of prostitution. Coercion is
not recognized as a legal defense.[111]

Under Penal Code No. 111 of 1969 (with amendments), rape is
a private offense, and no action can be brought by the state without the
consent of the complainant or a legal guardian. Article 393 permits
consideration of the victim's sexual history in rape cases and does not
stipulate a minimum penalty. Paragraph 398 excuses perpetrators in cases of
rape and sexual assault if he marries his victim, even after the sentence has
been imposed.[112]

The penal code treats so-called honor killings differently
from other murders by providing for mitigated sentences when issues of honor
are involved.[113]
Article 130 of the penal code allows penalties of as little as six months in
prison for the killing of a wife or female relative for honor-related reasons.

While the usual penalty for murder is death or life
imprisonment, article 409 of the penal code makes an exception by reducing the
penalty in cases when a man murders his wife or female relative after catching
her in an act of adultery.

In the early 2000s, the Kurdish region suspended laws
providing for mitigated sentences in relation to honor crimes but these laws
remain in effect in the rest of the country.[114]

Article 41 of the penal code states that the punishment of a
wife by her husband is considered a legal right and is categorized with such
acts as "the disciplining by parents and teachers of children."[115]

II.
Freedom of Expression

"Carrying an AK47 in Baghdad is a lot easier than
carrying a camera."

— Freelance journalist, Baghdad, April 6, 2010

On May 4, 2010, assailants abducted Sardasht Osman, a
23-year-old freelance journalist and student, at the entrance of his college in
Arbil.[116]
His tortured body, with two bullets in his head, was found a day later on a
road near Mosul.

Friends and family say they believe Osman, who freelanced
for different publications, died because he wrote critical articles about the
region's two governing parties, their leaders, and the region's
ingrained patronage system.[117]
A family member who saw his body said that he had been shot in the mouth, which
he and other local Kurdish journalists told Human Rights Watch they interpreted
as a message to the media to "be quiet."[118]

Though fewer Iraqi journalists in 2010 shared Sardasht Osman's
fate than did in the period between 2003 and 2008, Iraq still remains one of
the most hazardous places in the world to work as a journalist. Murders,
assaults, and threats continue against writers for doing their jobs. Government
officials, political party figures, and militias may all be responsible for the
violence, intended to silence some and intimidate the rest. New obstacles to
the free exchange of information have emerged in the period since 2007: the
rising number of libel suits lodged by government officials against
journalists, and increasingly restrictive regulations that constrain their
professional activity. Legislation intended to create additional protections
for journalists has been stalled for more than a year and is unlikely to move
forward any time soon.

Iraq is obligated to respect the right to freedom of expression
of all persons under international law and Iraq's constitution. However,
its national laws and regulations are inconsistent with these obligations. As
Human Rights Watch has documented in this report, the Iraqi government can use
these laws to revoke or suspend broadcasting licenses and bring charges against
individuals.

Two pieces of legislation designed to facilitate the work of
journalists are stalled in Iraq's parliament, the Council of
Representatives: the Access to Information Law, which ensures the right of
journalists to obtain public information, and the Journalists' Protection
Law, which aims to protect media workers and compensate them for injuries
sustained while working. Local press freedom advocates and journalists
expressed concerns that the Journalists' Protection Law should apply
broadly and protect all journalists including those working in new media. The
law currently defines "journalist" narrowly as someone who works
for an established news outlet and is affiliated with the Iraqi Journalists'
Syndicate.[119]

Background

Prior to 1968, Iraq's media was relatively free
compared with other countries in the Middle East. The Ba'ath party's
takeover of the government that year led to increasing restrictions on media,
which intensified after Saddam Hussein assumed the presidency in 1979. In 1992,
Saddam Hussein's son Uday, who had no relevant experience as a journalist
or publisher, became head of the Iraqi Journalist Union, which all Iraqi
journalists were required to join in order to practice their profession. Official
government propaganda dominated media coverage in Iraq until the US-led
occupation in 2003.[120]

In the months that followed the invasion, Iraq experienced a
media boom, as new publications and television and radio stations sprung up
across the country. Iraqi media analysts estimated that more than 200
newspapers and 90 television and radio stations were operating in Iraq one year
after the fall of Saddam. Iraqis could also access new sources of information
via the Internet and satellite dishes, which the previous government had
tightly controlled.[121]

It was not long before government restrictions appeared.
Within weeks of the invasion, the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA)
issued Order 14, which prohibited media from inciting "violence against
any individual or group," inciting "civil disorder," or
advocating "alterations to Iraq's borders by violent means."[122]

In the years since the occupation, journalism became a
dangerous occupation in Iraq. According to the New York-based Committee to
Protect Journalists, Iraq was the deadliest country in the world for
journalists for six consecutive years, between 2003 and 2008.[123]

More than 145 journalists have been killed in Iraq since
2003, including at least 90 who were targeted for murder.[124] Sixteen
of the slain journalists died as a result of fire by US forces in Iraq.[125]
US troops also detained journalists, some on the perception that they were
either engaged in or supporting the insurgency.[126]
Although there has been a decline in media fatalities and abductions during the
past two years, consistent with an overall drop in violence in Iraq, attacks
continue. Nongovernmental militias, state forces, and political party-linked
assailants have all been linked to these attacks. No matter who the
perpetrators may be, police as a rule fail to thoroughly investigate such
attacks, and the assailants are rarely if ever held to account. The frequent
violence, committed with impunity, severely constrains freedom of expression.

Violence against Journalists

Attacks by Unknown Armed Groups

On July 26, 2010, a suicide car bomber detonated his vehicle
in front of the Al Arabiyya satellite television station, killing six people
and destroying the Baghdad bureau. The Islamic State of Iraq, an umbrella group
associated with al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, later claimed responsibility for the
attack on the "corrupted" channel, stating on a website that the
operation aimed to hit the "mouthpieces of the wicked and evil."
The statement continued: "We will not hesitate to hit any media office
and chase its staffers if they insist on being a tool of war against almighty
God and his Prophet."[127]

Assailants previously targeted Al Arabiyya, one the most
popular networks in the Middle East but perceived by some as being pro-Western.
On September 9, 2008, the network's Iraq bureau chief, Jawad Hattab,
escaped an attempted assassination when he discovered an explosive device under
the seat of his car as he prepared to leave home for work. In October 2006, a
car bomb targeting Al Arabiyya's previous Baghdad bureau killed seven and
wounded 20. In February 2006, armed men kidnapped and killed Atwar Bahjat, an
Al Arabiyya anchorwoman, Khaled Mahmoud Al Falahi, a cameraman, and Adnan
Khairallah, a technician, in Samarra.

Since 2003, militias have
repeatedly targeted journalists whom they claim are promoting immorality or
fraternizing with occupation forces. One journalist in Baghdad told us he was
abducted and tortured after someone leaked a 10-minute video of him with other
Iraqi journalists mingling at a function with US forces. Posted online, the
banner above the video read: "Iraqi journalists who collaborate with
American forces." In August 2006, as he was leaving to go to work, a car
pulled up next to him and he heard one of the occupants say, "This is one
of them." Masked men jumped out of the car, beat him on his face and head,
and dragged him into their car. After the abductors took him to a safe house,
one of the kidnappers told him, "You seem like a good person, why are you
always against your religion and standing with the Americans?" He asked
who they were and they replied, "The group of honor." Over the next
five days, he said, his abductors tormented him. They repeatedly raped him,
burned him with cigarettes, and deprived him of water and food before they
released him.[128]

Often it has been unclear who is behind specific attacks
targeting journalists, as in the cases of a spate of attacks against television
journalists in Baghdad and Mosul in September 2010. On September 27, 2010, a
bomb placed underneath Alaa Mohsen's car exploded and badly injured him
as he was about to leave for work in Baghdad. Mohsen is a television presenter
for Al-Iraqiyya, part of the state-run Iraqi Media Network.[129]
On September 8, armed men in a car shot and killed Sabah al-Khayat, a
television presenter, as he was leaving his house in Mosul. Al-Khayat had
presented a program on mosques and shrines for Al-Mosuliyya satellite
television.[130]

The day before, on September 7, unknown gunmen shot and
killed prominent anchorman Riad al-Saray as he was leaving his house in western
Baghdad. Al-Saray, known for his attempts to narrow sectarian differences in
Iraq, presented political and religious programs for Al-Iraqiyya.[131]
At least 14 other Iraqi Media Network staffers have been killed since 2003, the
highest death toll for any media organization in Iraq during that period.[132]

Mu'aid al-Lami, head of the Iraqi Journalists'
Syndicate, which represents 12,000 journalists, survived two assassination
attempts by unknown assailants in less than two years.[133]
On September 20, 2008, he survived a bomb attack near the organization's
office. On March 12, 2010, gunmen opened fire on his car, killing his driver. He
continues to receive death threats warning him to quit his job, he said.[134]
His predecessor, 74-year-old Shihab al-Tamimi, was shot by unidentified gunmen
on February 23, 2008, as he was leaving the association's Baghdad office
and died from his wounds three days later. Al-Lami estimates that 1,000
journalists have fled Iraq since 2003, mainly because of the security
situation. Al-Lami and other press defenders said that authorities do not
investigate threats against media workers and perpetrators are rarely brought
to justice.

Violence linked to
State and Political Party-Affiliated Forces

In a satirical web article in December, which fellow
journalists believe sealed his fate, Sardasht Osman broke taboos of the region's
conservative culture by referring to a female family member of Massoud Barzani,
the region's president and leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party
(KDP). In the article, "I Am in Love with Barzani's Daughter,"
Osman pondered how he could rise from his poor surroundings by marrying one of
Barzani's daughters.[135]
Five months later, Osman was shot to death.

Bashdar Osman, Sardasht Osman's brother, told Human
Rights Watch that after the publication of that article, his brother received
multiple threats by text message and telephone in early January from a person
or persons the family believed worked for KRG or KDP security forces. The
threats all referenced Sardasht Osman's recent writings and said that he "would
pay" for his insults. Sardasht Osman "called the police chief of
Arbil and provided the telephone number from which threats were received, but
he refused to help," Bashdar Osman said. The police chief "only
responded by saying Arbil was safe, and that no one could hurt him."[136]

Bashdar Osman said his brother became more frightened as the
weeks passed and became visibly rattled whenever he saw government or security
vehicles. "He thought he would be killed at any time by a gun with a
silencer," Bashdar Osman said.[137]

Khellan Bakhtyar, a close friend of Osman who often co-wrote
articles with him, said that Osman told him that persons had threatened him
with violence if he did not stop writing "disrespectful" articles.
Bakhtyar said that Osman believed the threats were from government intelligence
agents. "It is crossing a red line to write about Barzani or his family,"
Bakhtyar told Human Rights Watch. "If you are not sued or arrested,
something worse can happen."[138]

In their last collaboration published in May 2010, Osman and
Bakhtyar criticized a senior leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK),
the region's other leading party. Bakhtyar said that after Osman was
murdered, Bakhtyar organized protests in his friend's honor. "I was
called by the Asayish [the Kurdistan Regional Government's intelligence
agency]," he told Human Rights Watch. "They told me: ‘You are
playing a dangerous game. If you happen to be killed by someone, it is not our
responsibility. We have warned you.'" Bakhtyar left Iraq in early
September 2010, and as of December 2010 he was applying for political asylum in
Europe.[139]

In response to Osman's murder, 75 Kurdish journalists,
editors, and intellectuals issued a statement that held the regional government
responsible for Osman's death: "This work is beyond the capability
of one person or one small group. We believe the Kurdistan Regional Government
and its security forces are responsible first and foremost and they are
supposed to do everything in order to find this evil hand."[140]

While taking part in a protest in Sulaimaniyya in the days
following Osman's murder, the editor of an influential magazine said he
received a chilling text message: "We will kill you like a dog."[141]

Kamal Chomani, another journalist who wrote and translated
several articles about Osman's death, told Human Rights Watch that he
received an anonymous email in August that read: "Give up what you are
doing. If you don't think of yourself, then think about your parents. We
can do whatever we want."[142]

On September 15, 2010, an inquiry consisting of unnamed
persons appointed by Barzani concluded that an Islamist armed group, Ansar
al-Islam, was responsible for Osman's abduction. The committee's
430-word statement did not substantiate its findings beyond referring to a
confession from one of the alleged perpetrators. The committee did not
interview Osman's family or those close to him.[143]

In a rare disavowal, Ansar al-Islam denied responsibility
for the killing. "If we kill or kidnap someone, we will announce it
ourselves," the group said in a statement released on September 21. "We
don't need anybody to lie for us."[144]

The committee's allegation that Osman was connected to
Ansar al-Islam has stirred anger in his family and among others close to him. "Sardasht
was a secular, liberal man, not in any way an Islamic fundamentalist,"
Bakhtyar said. "His writing was about abuses of regional power and
nepotism in the government, nothing Ansar al-Islam talks about."[145]

Since the release of the statement, members of Osman's
family say they have been threatened by government forces and KDP members after
speaking out against the committee's findings.[146]

For several journalists who spoke with Human Rights Watch,
Osman's murder was reminiscent of the July 2008 killing of Soran
Mama-Hama, an investigative reporter with Livin magazine, who had also
written articles critical of Kurdish authorities. He was assassinated outside
his parents' home in a Kurdish-controlled section of Kirkuk. In one
article, Mama-Hama had written about the suspected involvement of Kurdish
officials, including police and security officials, in prostitution rings.[147]

Harassment, Threats, and Assaults against
Journalists

As the security situation has gradually improved after 2007
and fatality rates for journalists have decreased, media workers today find
themselves encountering new risks to their work—they are regularly
harassed, intimidated, threatened, arrested, and physically assaulted by
security forces loyal to the government or political parties.[148] Journalists
in Baghdad, Basra, and Tikrit recounted numerous abuses they had personally
experienced.

"Before 2003, I lived in Iraq and we used to wish for
freedom including freedom of expression," said al-Lami from the
Journalists' Syndicate. "Today there is a wider space for freedom
of expression. But journalists are still in danger if they expose corruption or
government mistakes. We believe we are the fourth pillar, but the government
thinks we belong to them. There is a conflict between those seeking freedom and
those wanting to drag us back."[149]

Ziad al-Ajili, head of the Journalistic Freedoms Observatory
(JFO), an Iraqi press freedom group, has experienced this intimidation first
hand. On his way to a JFO ceremony in December 2009 to honor journalists who
exposed corruption, Iraqi security forces from Baghdad Operations Command
stopped his vehicle—which
was known to security forces since it was the only maroon colored Humvee in the
country. They told him they had received a report that his vehicle was
suspicious. Having good contacts within the security forces, he made some calls
and secured his release. Once he arrived at the Mansour hotel in Baghdad for
the ceremony, six military Humvees with 35 soldiers requested that hotel
security bring him out. "They were trying to humiliate me in front of the
journalists and officials. Their message was: "Stop what you are doing or
we will pull your ear [punish you]."[150]

Journalists who uncover corruption or criticize senior
government officials are at particular risk of abuse.

Two television presenters, famous in Iraq for provocative
shows that criticize the government, said they had been beaten by security
officials on different occasions over the past two years.[151] Human
Rights Watch viewed one video filmed by his cameraman in which Iraqi security
officials punched one of the presenters and attempted to drag him into a van
during a taping on a busy Baghdad street in 2009.

Since the two presenters are well known, security forces on
the streets of Baghdad can easily recognize them. In the fall of 2009, they
said police detained the pair for allegedly not properly stopping at a Baghdad
checkpoint. One officer slapped the passenger on the head and shouted, "You
Ba'athist!" Six or seven police dragged them out of the car,
kicking and beating them. The police arrested and took them to a police
station. Although the police officially charged them with running a checkpoint,
the line of questioning during their interrogation was political. An officer
spat on one of the journalists and asked them, "Why do you incite
uprisings against the government?" and "Why do you glorify Saddam?"
The police dropped the charges and released the pair after their television
station intervened.[152]

Another journalist, a television
presenter in Baghdad, told us that he was inundated with death threats via text
messages after he insulted a religious political party on air.[153] He
showed us 21 of the dozens of threatening text messages he had received. One
text, dated September 24, 2009, read: "We will behead those who
contribute to the perversion and corruption of the lands of Islam."
Another text, received four days later, read: "Dig your grave, sew your
death shroud, and write your will. Be prepared for your fate of death."[154]

One Basra journalist told us that he continues to live in
hiding after he published a 2006 article on corruption at the highest levels of
Basra's city council.[155]
He received death threats in the following months, including a phone call in
which the caller told him, "Your end is near, enjoy your last days."
After assailants shot at his house, he moved to a different neighborhood and
kept a low profile. Police offered him protection but he refused, believing it
makes him more of a target. "I've paid a high price for what I've
done," he said.[156]

Legal
and Regulatory Barriers to Free Expression

Restrictions on Photography

According to numerous journalists Human Rights Watch
interviewed in Baghdad and Basra, Iraqi security forces have frequently prevented
media from filming or taking photographs in public. Elections in particular
raised authorities' sensitivities, and were accompanied by greater
restrictions on photographers' freedoms. Sites of terror attacks, too,
were deemed too sensitive for free access. The problem became worse after the
Ministry of Interior issued an order on May 13, 2007, banning photographers for
an hour from the scenes of bombings, ostensibly to allow security forces enough
time to secure affected areas and help the injured.[157]

During the January 2009 provincial elections, authorities
detained some journalists for hours; others were beaten, had their equipment
destroyed, and were prevented from entering polling stations. In Basra, one photographer,
despite having proper accreditation, had to wait an hour and a half at the
polling station before he was let in. "When I finally got in, I took
photographs for 40 seconds before I was approached by the person in charge, who
asked me, 'Who let you in?' He waved to the police officers to kick
us all out." The police confiscated his camera and, he said, deliberately
broke it before returning it to him.[158]

In the lead-up to Iraq's parliamentary elections in
March 2010, a cameraman in Basra working on a feature story about female
candidates told Human Rights Watch that police detained him for hours because
he filmed campaign posters.[159]
"After the police stopped me, I explained to him who I was and what I was
filming," he said. "But he kept asking if I had a letter
authorizing me to film the streets. I laughed, saying I didn't know I
needed official permission to do my job. I was detained and released after
three hours when the police media office intervened. At that point it was too
late to continue filming. The whole episode deterred me from filming outside
again."

While some journalists said they understood the security
rationale behind security forces' preventing filming of checkpoints and
sensitive military installations, they do not understand why they were
prevented from filming areas devastated by bombings, for example. Journalists
suspected that government officials are trying to prevent photographers and
cameraman from filming events that might tarnish the government's
reputation.

Journalists complained that it is now extremely difficult if
not impossible to photograph bomb scenes until security forces have "sanitized"
the area first. Security forces rough up journalists who attempt to take
pictures and confiscate their cameras and flash cards.[160]

"The biggest problem that journalists have to deal
with in Iraq is the dictatorship mindset of security officials in Iraq,"
said Ziad from the JFO.

The police and the army act terrified if they see a camera.
Whenever they see a camera, they demand that journalists get permission from
Baghdad Operations Command [a security task force answering directly to the
Prime Minister's Office]. Iraq is a police state and the police here do
not understand freedom of expression.[161]

According to New York Times photographer Joao Silva,
a veteran of war zones, there is a clear government policy to keep
photographers away from bomb scenes.[162]

The Iraqis have learned the power of photographic images,
and they know that if there are no photographs of a bomb, it has far less impact
abroad. We still try to go, but usually the police stop us before we get near
enough to the scene to photograph it. They will let a reporter go up close, but
no cameras. Sometimes you get lucky and manage to get an image. And on the
really big explosions, like at the Hamra Hotel in January [2010] and the
government ministries last year, they are just too big to keep everyone away.
But usually they are very careful not to let cameras near. It's hit and
miss, but there is definitely a culture of "See No Evil."

Human Rights Minister Salim told us it is important for
security forces to limit access to areas hit by terrorists because those areas
are crime scenes with potential evidence.

Iraq is not a normal country—we have significant security problems,
terrorists are killing people every day. Our laws and our constitution protect
journalists but journalists have to be reasonable. When bombings occur,
journalists could potentially contaminate crime scenes, so it understandable
that security forces would limit their entry to bomb scenes. Security forces
aren't able to do their work if there are 100 people milling around. It's
also a dangerous area because sometimes there are multiple explosions, so it's
also for [the journalists] own security that they are removed.[163]

Journalists told us that security forces prevented them from
filming even non-contentious public sites. "In Basra, security forces act
with complete disdain and disrespect for journalists," one said.[164]
He said that even after he had received all the proper authorizations over a
month and a half earlier to film oil fields in the south for a story on oil
field investment, the government security force guarding the facilities
detained and humiliated him and his crew. After roughing them up, the security
guards confiscated their camera and equipment and deleted all their footage.

Another cameraman for a news show in Basra said security
forces frequently harassed him when filming in public.[165] In
one incident in early 2010, he filmed one of the station's correspondents
in front the Provincial Council building, which they used as a backdrop. As
they were packing up, police approached them, demanding to know what they were
filming and whether they had proper authorization. "We showed them our
badges and told them we didn't need authorization because we were not
planning to shoot inside the provincial council building. The next thing we
knew, the police detained us and confiscated my video camera until the media
office instructed them to release us."

Civil
and Criminal Defamation Suits

The government has become more effective at clamping down on
negative scrutiny by using the country's broad criminal and civil libel
laws to silence those who criticize members of the government. While the
constitution broadly provides for the right to free expression (provided it
does not violate public order and morality), the penal code authorizes fines
and imprisonment for any person who publicly insults the Council of
Representatives, the government, or public authorities.[166]

Additionally, the Law of Publications bans materials that
are "offensive" or "violate general moral values."[167]
Under Iraq's civil code, a person, including a journalist, is liable for "moral
injury," which includes "any encroachment (assault) on the freedom,
morality, honor, reputation, social standing, or financial position
(credibility) of others."[168]
There is no cap on the amount that can be demanded or awarded.

Hassan Shaaban, a human rights and media lawyer who is legal
counsel to the JFO, told Human Rights Watch that because the civil code is so
vague, judges have enormous discretion in determining what constitutes a moral
injury. [169]

Hasshim al-Mosawi, legal counsel at the Iraqi Journalist
Rights Defense Association, whose 14 lawyers have tried 25 cases since it was
founded in 2006, said that without a unified law regulating media, judges will
be able to continue relying on the vague and outdated provisions of different
pieces of law when trying a civil or criminal suit. "This is why [the
judges] are jumping from this to that law. If they do not find a journalist
guilty under one law, they can go to another. It leaves too much up to the
judge's opinion. He can bend the text as he likes, because the law is not
clear. The judge can define the crime with one law and then extract the
punishment with another."[170]

Al-Mosawi said that in the first 10 months of 2010,
government or party officials had filed 55 lawsuits in central Iraq and
Kurdistan, up from 35 in 2009.

The Journalists'
Syndicate's al-Lami said that his organization is helping journalists
challenge more than 30 lawsuits launched by the government. "Before 2008
things were different—killing was the preferred method of silencing
journalists in Iraq. Today it's with lawsuits."[171]

Most recently, the Kurdistan Democratic Party—headed by KRG President
Masoud Barzani—filed a one billion dollar defamation lawsuit against
opposition weekly Rozhnama after a July 20, 2010, article accused the
KDP and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan of profiting from illegal oil
smuggling to Iran.[172]

Iraqi officials have not limited themselves to local media.
In February 2009, a lawyer for Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki filed a
one-billion-dinar (US$860,000) lawsuit against Ayad al-Zamli, owner of the
German-based Arabic-language website Kitabat, and one of the website's
writers, in connection with an article describing alleged nepotism in the Prime
Minister's Office. After a local and international outcry, al-Maliki
withdrew the lawsuit.[173]

In May 2009, the Iraqi National Intelligence Service (INIS)
filed a defamation complaint against the London-based Guardian newspaper
over an article documenting what it said were increasingly autocratic practices
of the prime minister. In November, an Iraqi court ordered the Guardian
to pay damages of 100 million dinars ($85,000).[174]

New
Regulatory Barriers and Legislative Inaction

Iraq's Communications and Media Commission began
enforcing new regulations issued ahead of the March 7 parliamentary elections
ostensibly to silence broadcasters who encourage sectarian violence. The
regulations suffer from several drafting defects that encroach on the freedoms
of Iraq's broadcast media.[175]
A review of the regulations by Human Rights Watch found that the content-based
restrictions are underdeveloped, vague, and susceptible to abuse. The
regulations stipulate: "the [media] establishment should not broadcast
any material that incites violence [or] sectarianism" without giving any
clear guidelines as to what that encompasses.[176]

The regulations also stipulate that all broadcasters and
their journalists must seek permission from the commission to operate in Iraq
but provide little information on the criteria the government would use in
issuing licenses. The regulations give the CMC the power to close, suspend, fine,
and confiscate equipment for first-time minor violations of the licensing
terms.[177]

One media outlet has already fallen victim. On November 1,
2010, the CMC ordered the shutdown of the Baghdad and Basra offices of
Al-Baghdadiyya, according to staff interviewed by the Committee to Protect
Journalists. The decision came a day after the Cairo-based satellite
channel broadcast demands from gunmen who had attacked a Baghdad church,
an attack which resulted in the death of 44 parishioners and two priests. A statement
by the CMC following the closure accused the station of being a mouthpiece for
the gunmen whose demands amounted to "incitement to violence." It
said the station's coverage was not objective and had threatened military
operations to rescue the hostages.[178]

International
Standards Protecting Freedom of Expression

Article 19 of the ICCPR imposes legal obligations on states
to protect freedom of expression and information:

"Everyone shall have the right to hold opinions
without interference; everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression;
this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and
ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in
print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice."[179]

The ICCPR permits governments to impose certain restrictions
or limitations on freedom of expression only if such restriction is provided by
law and is necessary: (a) for respect of the rights or reputations of others; or
(b) for the protection of national security or of public order (ordre public),
or of public health or morals.[180]

Iraqi authorities regularly declare that broadcasts are "inciting
violence and sectarianism" as the rationale for restricting media. The
tension between the right to free expression and information on the one hand,
and national security on the other, has been the subject of much inquiry by
courts, international bodies, and scholars. The UN Human Rights Committee,
which monitors state compliance with the ICCPR, has stated that "the
legitimate objective of safeguarding and indeed strengthening national unity
under difficult political circumstances cannot be achieved by attempting to
muzzle advocacy of multiparty democracy, democratic tenets and human rights."[181]
A group of experts in international law, national security, and human rights
issued the Johannesburg Principles on National Security, Freedom of Expression
and Access to Information on October 1, 1995.[182]

Over time, the international legal community has come to widely
recognize these principles as an authoritative interpretation of the
relationship between these rights and interests, reflecting the growing body of
international legal opinion and emerging customary international law on the
subject. The principles set out guidelines on restrictions on free speech,
including the principle that governments must use the least restrictive means
possible in prohibiting speech that is contrary to legitimate national security
interests.[183]
According to the principles, national security interests do not include "protect[ing]
a government from embarrassment or exposure of wrongdoing."[184]

Some restrictions on free speech—such as criminalizing
incitement to violence—are permitted under international law, but such
restrictions must meet several high hurdles. First, restrictions must be
prescribed by law, and they must be accessible, clear, narrowly drawn, and
subject to judicial scrutiny.[185]
Second, the restriction must have both the genuine purpose and the demonstrable
effect of protecting national security.[186] Third, the
restriction must apply only where the expression poses a serious threat, is the
least restrictive means available, and is compatible with democratic
principles.[187]

Various human rights bodies and courts around the world have
determined that protection of freedom of expression must include tolerance of
criticism of public officials.[188]
As the African Commission stated, "People who assume highly visible
public roles must necessarily face a higher degree of criticism than private
citizens; otherwise public debate may be stifled altogether."[189]

National
Standards on Freedom of Expression

Iraq's Constitution has several provisions related to
freedom of expression:

Article 38 guarantees "in a way that does not
violate public order and morality "all means of freedom of
expression[190]
as well as freedom of press, printing, advertisement, media, and
publication.[191]

Article 46 allows restrictions on the right to freedom of
expression "by law or on the basis of it, and insofar as that limitation
or restriction does not violate the essence of the right or freedom."

Article 102 establishes the Communications and Media
Commission, the regulatory body for broadcasting and telecommunications,
as a "financially and administratively independent institution"
and specifies that it shall be "attached to" Iraq's
parliament, known as the Council of Representatives.

Defamation is a criminal and civil offense in Iraq and both
codes contain vague and underdeveloped provisions that restrict the right to freedom
of expression.

Under the 1951 civil code, a journalist is liable for "moral
injury," including "any encroachment (assault) on the freedom,
morality, honor, reputation, social standing, or financial position
(credibility) of others."[192]

Under the 1969 penal code, it is a crime to:

Insult the Arab community, the Iraqi people (including any
part of the population), the national flag, or any state emblem;[193]

Publish or broadcast any governmental material the
publication of which has been prohibited;[204]

Maliciously obtain materials that incite constitutional
change or that promote banned ideologies with the aim of publishing them;[205]

Willfully broadcast (or intent to willfully broadcast)
false and ill-intentioned news, statements, or rumors, or disseminate
inciting propaganda if this disturbs public security, intimidates people,
or inflicts harm on public interest;[206]

Publish by any means false information if this disturbs
the public peace;[207]

Possess (with the aim of publication, trade, or
distribution) materials that endanger public security or tarnish the country's
reputation;[208]

For a public official or agent, to knowingly release
information obtained in the course of duty or relating to a contract or
transaction to a person from whom s/he is required to withhold it, if this
results in harming state interests;[210]

Possess for publication any material "that violates
the public integrity or decency";[211]

Divulge secrets obtained through employment or
professional activities, except when the aim is to report or prevent a
crime;[212]
and

Publish private information or a picture where this causes
offense.[213]

The Coalition Provisional Authority further extended the
range of prohibited actions through CPA Order 14, which prohibited the
publication of any material that incites violence, civil disorder, rioting or
damage to property, or advocating the return of the Ba'ath Party, among
other things.[214]

The Communications and Media Commission implemented
broadcast media regulations ahead of the March 7, 2010 elections, as described
above.[215]
Provisions included a blanket ban on broadcasting "any material that
incites violence [or] sectarianism."[216] The CMC has not
provided any guidance toward the meaning of that concept. The regulations give
the CMC the power to cancel licenses after certain first-time minor offenses.[217]

III.
Torture of Detainees

On December 19, 2009, during one of numerous security
sweeps of Mosul, Iraqi soldiers kicked open the front door of Ahmad M.'s
family home, arresting the 21-year-old for alleged terrorism.[218]

For months, no one in his family knew where he was taken or
if he was still alive. Ahmad said that during the worst days of his ordeal at a
secret government detention facility at Muthanna Airport, he wished he wasn't
alive.

"During the first eight days they tortured me daily,"
he told us. "[The interrogators] would put a bag on my head and start to
kick my stomach and beat me all over my body. They threatened that if I didn't
confess, they would bring my sisters and mother to be raped. I heard him on the
cell phone giving orders to rape my sisters and mother."[219]

In one torture session, Ahmed, who was blindfolded and
handcuffed, said his tormentors stripped him and ordered him to stroke another
detainee's penis. Then they forced him to the floor and forced the other
detainee on top of him.

"It hurt when it started to penetrate me. The guards
were all laughing and saying, ‘He's very tight, let's bring
some soap!' When I experienced the pain, I asked them to stop and said that
I would confess. Although I confessed to the killings, I mentioned fake names
since I never killed anyone. So the torture continued even after I confessed
because they suspected my confession was false." He went on to say that
one of the guards also forced him to have oral sex. [220]

Ahmad's story echoes that of many Iraqi detainees, who
are routinely subjected to torture at facilities across the country. Following
on the legacy of the judicial system under previous governments, courts
continue to rely mainly on confessions, which interrogators extract with
seemingly unlimited brutality. International investigators have repeatedly
documented the persistence and widespread nature of torture in Iraq in recent
years; little has changed in response to those reports.[221] Human
Rights Watch's findings show that as of 2010, the practice remains as
entrenched as ever, failing even to draw a critical response when evidence is
produced by the Iraqi government itself.

Background

Abuse and torture in detention facilities have a long
history in Iraq. Under Saddam Hussein, torture was commonplace. His government
sanctioned the widespread use of torture, the death penalty, and extrajudicial
executions as tools of political repression, both in order to eliminate real or
suspected opponents and to maintain a reign of terror over the population at
large.[222]
The extent of the horrors of his repressive rule started to come to light after
1991, when Kurds in northern Iraq gained a measure of self-rule. In former
Iraqi police stations and prisons, Kurds discovered torture chambers and
execution sites where, they say, thousands of political prisoners died under
torture or were shot. [223]

After 2003, serious abuses occurred in facilities run by US
and British forces. And US authorities transferred thousands of Iraqi detainees
to Iraqi custody despite knowing that they faced a clear risk of torture.
Military cables released in October 2010 by Wikileaks, mostly authored by
low-ranking US officers in the field between 2004 and 2009, indicate that US
commanders frequently failed to follow up on credible evidence that Iraqi
forces killed, tortured, and mistreated their captives. According to the
documents, US authorities investigated some abuse cases, but much of the time
they either ignored the abuse or asked Iraqis to investigate and closed the
file.[224]

The first pictures showing U.S. soldiers humiliating and
torturing detainees at Abu Ghraib prison appeared in late April 2004.[225]
An investigative report of U.S. Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba found "numerous
incidents of sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses" constituting "systematic
and illegal abuse of detainees" at Abu Ghraib.[226] Human
Rights Watch, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and journalists have
extensively documented extreme cases of torture and inhuman treatment at
locations in Iraq other than Abu Ghraib.[227]

From 2003 to 2006, for example, US personnel and Iraqi
detainees reported serious mistreatment of detainees by a special military and
Central Intelligence Agency task force responsible for capturing or killing
high-level combatants at Camp Nama. The task force regularly stripped detainees
naked, subjected them to sleep deprivation and extreme cold, placed them in
painful stress positions, humiliated, and beat them.[228] Human
Rights Watch also documented abuse at Forward Operating Base (FOB) Tiger, near al-Qaim,
in western Iraq on the border of Syria. Officials at the base held detainees,
without food or water, in oppressively hot metal containers for more than 24
hours as temperatures exceeded 57 degrees Celsius. Interrogators then took the
detainees for interrogations where they beat and subjected them to threats.[229]

British forces in southern Iraq also abused Iraqi detainees.
In one incident, Baha Mousa, an Iraqi hotel worker, died while in British
custody in Basra in 2003. A post-mortem examination showed that Mousa had at
least 93 injuries to his body, including a broken nose and fractured ribs.[230]
On December 21, 2010, the High Court in London refused an application for a
full public inquiry into allegations of killings, torture, and inhuman and
degrading treatment by British soldiers and interrogators in Iraq.[231]

Despite abuses meted out
by US and British forces, the Coalition Provisional Authority attempted to
introduce legal reforms that would have made it easier to prosecute
perpetrators. The CPA suspended article 136 of the Criminal Procedure Code,
which required the relevant minister to refer for prosecution cases of
malfeasance committed in the course of official duties, a role usually assigned
to an independent prosecutor. The persistent failure of the Minister of
Interior or other relevant authorities to refer such cases for prosecution
effectively blocked the pursuit of accountability for torturers. Under Iraq's
constitution, all CPA laws remain valid unless specifically abrogated by new
legislation. However, successive Iraqi governments, since the official end of
the occupation in mid 2004, have continued to invoke article 136 to block prosecutions
of alleged torture and official corruption.[232]

CPA and US government policies and have had an enormous
impact on criminal justice, police, security, and counterterrorism institutions
and personnel in Iraq. The CPA, under order number one ("De-Ba'athification
of Iraqi Society"), fired top-ranking Ba'ath Party members from all
government positions, resulting in a loss of institutional knowledge on the
functioning of the police force and other government institutions.

The US has been training Iraq police since December 2003.[233]
Since 2008, United States Forces (with Danish Forces) have sponsored a "human
rights and ethics train-the-trainer" course in Baghdad. Graduates are
supposed to pass on the training to police departments throughout the country.[234]
With the December 2011 deadline for all American troops to leave the country
quickly approaching, the US is shifting its entire program for Iraqi police
training from the Defense Department back to the State Department, starting in
October 2011.

Secret Facility at
Muthanna Airport

Starting in September 2009, security forces kept some 430
Iraqi men hidden away at a secret facility in the old Muthanna airport in West
Baghdad, run by the Baghdad Operations Command, one of several regional
security commands set up by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki that answer directly
to his office.

After the Human Rights Ministry discovered the Muthanna
facility' s existence, inspected it in March 2010, and reported the
abuses to the prime minister, authorities transferred or released all the men,
moving 300 of them to Al Rusafa prison. Until then, the detainees had no access
to their families or lawyers. They did not even receive a case number, never
mind formal charges. An investigative judge questioned many of them individually
in a room just down the hall from one of the torture chambers.

The Iraqi Army had detained them between September and
December 2009 during sweeps in and around Mosul, a stronghold of Sunni armed
groups, accusing the men of aiding and abetting terrorism and forcing them to
sign confessions. Even after they confessed, many told us, torture persisted.

As soon as Human Rights Watch entered the wing of the Al Rusafa
facility housing these detainees, dozens of them pressed against the bars of 19
overcrowded cage-like cells and began re-enacting the abuses that interrogators
at Muthanna had subjected them to. They lifted their shirts and pant legs to
reveal bruising, scabs, and disfigurements. Each of the 42 inmates we
interviewed there in April wanted to share his story, and each story was
horrifically like the ones before.

The men's stories were credible and consistent. They
described in detail how their torturers kicked, whipped, and beat them,
asphyxiated them, subjected them to electric shocks, burned them with
cigarettes, and pulled out their fingernails and teeth. The prisoners said that
interrogators sodomized some detainees with sticks and pistol barrels. Some
young men said they had been forced to perform oral sex on interrogators, and
guards and that interrogators forced detainees to molest one another. If the
detainees still refused to confess, interrogators would threaten to rape the
women and girls in their families.

Most of the 300 displayed
fresh scars and injuries they said were a result of routine and systematic
torture they had experienced at the hands of interrogators at Muthanna. Huge
scabs on their legs matched their accounts of being suspended upside down with
their lower legs trapped between bars. Deep welts on their backs were consistent
with cable whipping.

The detainees lacked
sufficient medical and psychological treatment for the torture they endured.
One 24-year-old detainee, who displayed severe leg injuries, said his front
teeth had been smashed during one of his interrogation sessions in the secret
prison. After he had been arrested on September 30, 2009, in Mosul, an
interrogator told him that they would rape his mother and sister if he did not
confess. He confided that he had been repeatedly sodomized with a stick and a
pistol, and now frequently wet his bed and had trouble sleeping. [235]

Another detainee, a pediatrician, described what had
happened after he saw one of his cellmates dragged out for a torture session on
January 18, 2010. When they brought the man back to the cell, the pediatrician
noticed swelling above his cellmate's liver and suspected internal
bleeding. He told the guards that the man needed immediate medical attention.
The guards took the tortured man out but returned him an hour later saying that
he was fine. The man died in the cell an hour later.[236]

In many cases, torture sessions lasted for hours. "The
guards would come into our cell and grab three or four detainees at a time,"
said one detainee. "They would walk us to the interrogation room to begin
the abuse. They would beat us for hours and so badly that we could not stand up
so they would have to drag us back to our cells. They would let us recover for
three days before the cycle of torture began anew."[237]

Although torture was mainly used to elicit confessions, in
some cases it also served as punishment. One detainee told us that after he
spoke to an inspection team from the Human Rights Ministry in March, guards
beat him severely. He was captured along with 33 others in Mosul on the night
of September 17, 2009, he said. Interrogators would tie his arms behind his
back and blindfold him before hanging him upside down to administer a beating. "They
would suffocate me with a bag until I passed out and would wake me with an
electric shock to my genitals."[238]

At Muthanna, a detainee's age, nationality, or medical
condition were no impediments to the harsh treatment interrogators meted out. On
December 7, security forces arrested a former general in the Iraqi army, now a
British citizen who is confined to a wheelchair (unrelated to the arrest and
abuse), after he returned to Mosul from London to find his detained son. The
general's jailers refused him medicine for his diabetes and high blood
pressure. "I was beaten up severely, especially on my head," he
told us. "They broke one of my teeth during the beatings ... They applied
electricity to my penis and sodomized me with a stick. I was forced to sign a
confession that they wouldn't let me read."[239]

Security forces arrested one detainee with his brother in
Mosul on December 16. He described how his interrogators strung him upside down
and severely beat him with his eyes blindfolded and his hands tied behind his
back. He suffered broken ribs from the beatings and urinated blood for days.
The interrogators threatened to rape his wife if he did not confess. One time
he was stripped naked and told to penetrate another naked inmate lying on the
floor or otherwise be raped by two male guards.

In another case, the Iraqi army arrested a 59-year-old
father and his 29-year-old son at their house in Mosul on September 30. Both
described sessions in which interrogators hung them upside down and beat them.
During one session, an interrogator stripped the father naked in front of his
son. The interrogator told the son they if he did not confess they would rape
his father. The father was told that if he did not confess they would kill his
son. The son said that the guards subsequently sodomized him with a broomstick.

The torture uncovered at Muthanna was extraordinary only in
its severe, routine, and systematic nature. Across Iraq, lawyers, human rights
advocates, and former detainees told us that torture and ill-treatment remained
a serious problem in many Iraqi detention facilities and jails. A Ministry of
Human Rights prisons report indicated that in 2009 the ministry documented 574
separate allegations of torture in Iraqi facilities—primarily in Ministry of Interior
facilities—as well as four suspicious deaths.[240]

"Prisons are one of the great tragedies of modern Iraq
and are nothing more than factories of torture and mistreatment. Things are
getting worse and we are now back to Saddam's time. But now we are more
artistic in how we do it," a defense lawyer and leader of a jurist
association in Basra told Human Rights Watch.[241] "Iraqi
guards are creative artists in how they torture … they don't just
limit themselves to physical torture but embrace mental torture as well. Prisoners
are isolated for such long periods so long that they lose sense of time, and no
lawyer is able to help them no matter what."

Although all the
detainees at Muthanna were Sunni Arabs, it appears that Iraqi security forces
targeted them not for their religious denomination but because the men were
presumed to affiliated with militia groups in Mosul, which remains one of the
most dangerous places in Iraq. Former Shia detainees from Basra and Sadr City
told us they were tortured on suspicion of belonging to the Jaish al-Mahdi, led
by Muqtada al-Sadr. Human Rights Watch also interviewed activists from minority
groups tortured by the Kurdistan Regional Government security forces—they said this owed not to their minority status
but because they challenged KRG rule in the disputed areas . In Iraq, torture
by government security forces appears to be more a product of a flawed criminal
justice system than a tool of ethnic repression.

Reliance on Confessions

Torture and other forms of abuse carried out in Iraqi
detention facilities to obtain confessions have been well-documented since
2004.[242]
Investigative hearings and trials in Iraq rely heavily on confessions and the
testimony of witnesses and secret informants rather than physical evidence.[243]
Iraqi human rights advocates we interviewed said they have serious concerns
about fairness at court proceedings, given how prevalent abuse is in detention
facilities and the evidentiary weight the justice system gives to confessions
as well as information from secret informants.

A criminal defense lawyer in Baghdad told Human Rights Watch
that most of the 25 clients she represented over the last year said they signed
confessions in order to stop their torture.[244] "Most of my
clients have been exposed to torture," she said. "Most of the
times, they can't speak the details because they are too embarrassed
about what happened to them. The interrogators use lots of cultural taboos and
dirty methods to get what they want."

A former detainee at another facility told us he was
arrested in January 2009 at his parents' house in Sadr City on suspicion
of forging documents for the Jaish al-Mahdi.[245] Although the
incident happened more than a year ago, he showed us a huge welt on his back
from blows he said he received from a rifle butt during this detention. He said
that for four days security forces held him in an army detention facility with
his hands tied behind his back; he was blindfolded the entire time with the
exception of when he went to the bathroom. If he had to relieve himself outside
of the allotted times, the guard instructed him to urinate in his clothes. Interrogators
would lay him face down on the ground, lift his feet, and beat the soles with a
wooden stick. They also kicked and punched him all over his body, including his
head. "The blindfold they wrapped around my head was a blessing in
disguise because it was a thick fabric and absorbed some of the force from the
blows," he said[246]

On other occasions, he said, interrogators gave him electric
shocks or drenched him with freezing water after they stripped him and dragged
him outside, during winter. Interrogators questioned him about his "pious"
beard, which he said he had grown to mourn the passing of an uncle. "They
burned it with a lighter," he said. [247]

He said that interrogators forced his fingerprint on a
confession that he did not read. In an adjacent cell, he could hear the screams
of his detained nephew. After the abuse, the nephew falsely confessed that his
uncle had kidnapped and killed numerous Iraqi security officials and Sunni
Arabs. The judge did not believe the confessions, and released the uncle.[248]

This detainee, the uncle, said his family paid officials
thousands of dollars as a bribe, not for his release but simply to have his
case expedited. Detainees with lesser means may spend years in custody without
charge or trial. "The way to push forward cases is to bribe officials,"
said a prisoners' advocate in Baghdad who volunteers at an NGO hotline
for detainees. "Those who have nothing find their case stuck."[249]

According to the Ministry of Human Rights, more than 30,000
detainees and prisoners remain in the custody of the Ministry of Interior,
Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Defense, or Ministry of Labor and Social
Affairs.[250]
Government-run detention facilities struggle to accommodate the large number of
detainees, and serious delays in the judicial review of detention has exacerbated
overcrowding.

Government Inaction and Denials

To date, the government's response to torture
allegations has been dismal. Although there are indications that authorities
took some disciplinary action, including court referrals, against security
forces accused of abuse and undertook judicial follow-up in some torture cases,
there is little indication that the government has taken enough serious
measures to put an end to the practice.[251]

Despite the overwhelming evidence, including from its own
Human Rights Ministry, that torture was routine and systematic at Muthanna,
officials have not thoroughly investigated or prosecuted the officials
responsible.[252]
Prime Minister al-Maliki characterized the torture accounts at Muthanna as "lies"
and "a smear campaign."[253]
He told state-run Al-Iraqiyya television that the detainees inflicted the scars
on themselves "by rubbing matches on some of their body parts."[254]
Instead of ordering an independent inquiry, the prime minister suspended the
work of the Ministry of Human Rights' prison inspection team, who first
uncovered the abuse.

The government, by failing to launch a proper investigation
in the face of such egregious abuses, and by reprimanding its own investigators
who uncovered abuse, only bolsters impunity and sends a message to torturers
that they are above the law.

International Standards Prohibiting Torture

The Government of Iraq
has legal obligations under international human rights treaty law and customary
law that govern the treatment of detainees. The prohibition against torture and
other mistreatment is a longstanding and fundamental norm of customary
international law.[255]

Iraq is bound by the treaty obligations of previous Iraqi
governments.[256]
Most notable among these are those laid out by the ICCPR, which requires that
detainees be treated with respect for their "inherent dignity,"[257]
and mandates that detainees shall "not be subjected to torture or to
cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment."[258]

Similar prohibitions are found in the Convention against
Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
(Convention against Torture), which Iraq is in the final process of ratifying,[259]
and other treaties.[260]
The Convention against Torture specifically prohibits using as evidence in any
proceeding "any statement which is established to have been made as a
result of torture."[261]

National
Standards Prohibiting Torture

The Constitution, under Article 37 (c), prohibits "all
forms of psychological and physical torture and inhumane treatment." Article
37 also states, "Any confession made under force, threat, or torture
shall not be relied on, and the victim shall have the right to seek
compensation for material and moral damages incurred in accordance with the
law."

Similar to the constitution, Iraq's Criminal Procedure
Code bans the use of "any illegal methods to influence the accused and
extract a confession."[262]
It also provides for criminal liability for torture or other instances of abuse
in custody. Article 333 of the Penal Code criminalizes the actions of any
public official or agent who tortures or orders the torture of a person accused
of a crime, witness, or informant in order to compel a confession.[263]

Nevertheless, as noted above, Article 136(b) of the Criminal
Procedure Code contains a major legal obstacle to prosecuting government
officials who have engaged in or authorized abuse of detainees.[264]
This article requires that where the alleged offenses took place in the course
of or arising from official duty, the "responsible minister" (for
example, the interior minister in cases involving police) must permit referral
of the accused official for trial.[265]
The article continues to be invoked to block prosecutions, despite having been
suspended by CPA head L. Paul Bremer in January 2004 when he established the
integrity commission as an independent agency to carry out corruption
investigations.[266]

IV.
Marginalized Communities

A series of wars and continuing violence over the past three
decades have displaced millions of Iraqis inside the country, many impoverished
and living in miserable conditions. For Iraq's religious minority
communities, especially non-Muslims, the lack of security and the rise of
religious extremism have brought attacks that have led members to emigrate in
disproportionate numbers. The armed strife, along with an abundance of
abandoned landmines and cluster munitions, has created a disproportionately
high number of disabled persons in a country whose health and rehabilitation
institutions, including hospitals, have languishedfrom more than a
decade of harsh sanctions as well as political strife and corruption.

Despite the dire
situation in which marginalized communities in Iraq find themselves, persistent
inaction by the government, along with inadequate responses when it does act,
has exasperated matters. Although the government has passed laws (including
constitutional safeguards) to protect its marginalized communities, and has
instituted significant assistance programs, it is still failing its most
vulnerable citizens. Many of the government's assistance programs are
non-operational or sub-operational, and vastly insufficient to meet the needs
of target populations, despite Iraq's international and domestic
commitments. The government needs to urgently address, in a significant and
meaningful way, the needs of persons victimized by years of conflict, in some
cases going back several decades. Iraq's efforts to protect the rights
and meet the basic needs of its most marginalized citizens will be an indicator
of the country's commitment to human rights and the rule of law.

Internally Displaced
Persons

Zainab A., a 36-year-old widow and mother of four, lost her
Sunni Arab husband to a car bomb in the town of Abu Ghraib in 2006. After his
death, the neighborhood elder warned Zainab that she, a Shia, was in imminent
danger living in a Sunni neighborhood. According to Zainab, the elder told her,
"Yes, I know your sons are Sunni, but you are still in danger. We are not
able to protect you." Zainab had already paid her rent six months in
advance and had no money but women from the community, concerned for her
safety, also advised her to leave. Terrified after armed assailants began
killing neighbors, Zainab and her four children moved to a squatter settlement
in nearby Baghdad. Despite not having much of their own, Zainab's new
neighbors donated money and raw materials so that she could build a small shack
for her family. She survives on handouts from her neighbors and has no plans to
return to Abu Ghraib.[267]

Iraq is home to about two million internally displaced
persons, about 1.5 million of whom were displaced since 2006.[268]
About 500,000 of these 1.5 million live as squatters in slum areas, without
basic services, including garbage collection, water, and electricity.[269]
In 2009, the government issued a directive calling upon all squatters to vacate
public buildings and lands. Although the government postponed enforcement of
the directive, IDPs remain at risk of eviction from public areas.[270]

Economic pressures and
difficulties maintaining legal status in Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon, along with
a somewhat improved security situation in Iraq are slowly inducing Iraqi
refugees to return. However, UNHCR estimates that about 1.5 million Iraqis
still live outside the country. The government remains without a workable plan
for the return to their homes of Iraqis displaced internally or who had fled to
neighboring countries, or for other durable solutions such as integration in
places they now live or relocation or resettlement for those unable or
unwilling to return. Although the government has pledged about $78 million for
the reconstruction of destroyed homes, the disbursement of these funds is
lagging.[271] In Baghdad returnees are
seldom able to reclaim their former homes. In rural communities many find their
houses destroyed or in disrepair, and they lack access to income and basic
services.

Some IDPs have had to relocate numerous times. In 2006, the
day after assailants killed Abed Mahsan's Shia neighbor and two hours
after they threatened Mahsan's life for living in a Sunni neighborhood,
his family left their home north of Baghdad with only the possessions they
could carry. Abed now lives in a desolate area of Baghdad away from others, in
a tent lined with plastic election posters to keep water out. The family moves
from place to place as he looks for work as a casual laborer. None of his six
children attend school and the family has no running water or electricity.[272]

Many IDPs in Baghdad
huddle together in squatter settlements under bridges, alongside railroad
tracks, and among garbage dumps.[273] Human Rights Watch visited
an IDP settlement in the Chikook suburb of northwest Baghdad, where some 12,000
Iraqis found refuge after fleeing their homes during the sectarian violence
that enveloped the country in 2006. A clean-up campaign launched by UNHCR last
year improved the area, but Iraqis in Chikook still live in appalling
conditions.[274] Heaps of strewn out garbage
lie in between compounds. The area still has no sewage system, safe drinking
water, garbage collection, or other basic services.

Hassan moved to Chikook with his wife, five children, and a
few possessions after fleeing his home in the town of Taji, 30 kilometers north
of Baghdad, in 2006. Soon after the Samarra bombing in February 2006, armed men
arrived at his door in Taji and gave him three days to leave, saying he
belonged to the wrong sect. Like other IDPs we interviewed, he has no
foreseeable plans to move back to his community. The only support he has
received is from local NGOs, which provided the family with blankets. His
biggest fear is that the government will evict him from his small house because
he does not have permission to live there as a squatter.[275]

Community leaders complained that the government needs to do
more to help the residents of Chikook. They fear that authorities will try to
evict them since many consider the settlement to be an eyesore.[276]
In the nearby squatter settlement of al-Batool, two kilometers from Chikook,
community leaders said the government evicted 800 families (with compensation).
They said that government pressure on residents to leave Chikook eased only
after movie star Angelina Jolie visited the settlement in July 2009.

Iraq's government has been
unable to uphold a number of the basic human rights in the Guiding Principles
on Internal Displacement,[277]
including the right to an adequate standard of living,[278]
medical care,[279]
and dignity and physical, mental, and moral integrity.[280]

Religious and Ethnic
Minorities

While Iraqis from all
ethnic communities and religious denominations suffered from violence in the
years that followed the US-led occupation, smaller minority communities,
especially non-Muslims, have been particularly vulnerable. Some armed groups
have attacked members of the Christian (also known as Chaldo-Assyrian), Yazidi,
and Shabak communities, labeling them "crusaders,""devil-worshipers,"
and "infidels," respectively.[281]
Attacks against minorities have had a profound effect by targeting their
communities' social infrastructure, leaving victims and others fearful to
carry on with their everyday lives. Lacking militias and tribal structures to
defend themselves, a disproportionate number have fled the country.[282]

Although the government publicly condemns violence against
minority groups, it has not taken sufficient measures to bolster security in
areas where minorities are particularly vulnerable to attacks, and community
leaders say that attacks are almost never thoroughly investigated. Iraqi
security forces rarely apprehend, prosecute, and punish perpetrators of such
attacks, which has created a climate of impunity.

Sabian Mandaeans

Since 2003, the Sabian
Mandaeans—one of the world's oldest religious groups—have fled the country en masse after targeted attacks against their community.
Since then, almost 90 percent of their community has either fled Iraq or died.[283] An estimated 3,500 to 5,000 Sabians remain
in Iraq today, compared with a reported 50,000 to 60,000 in 2003.[284] Now scattered in small pockets around the
world, Sabians are fearful that their global displacement will mean an end to
their religion, language, and culture. The Sabians traditionally speak a
variation of Aramaic, revere John the Baptist, and are indigenous to southern
Iraq.

At the only Sabian Mandaean temple in Basra, community leader
Naiel Thejel Ganeen told Human Rights Watch about the evening in 2006 that
became the start of his enduring trauma.[285] Masked assailants
carrying AK47s and pistols pulled over Ganeen, 55, while he was driving in
Basra with his son. They forced his son to leave the car at gunpoint and
abducted Ganeen in his own vehicle. He said his kidnappers kept referring to
him as "negis" (impure) and said he had to pay them jizya.[286]
His captors tortured him for nine days while keeping him blindfolded and bound
in a dark cellar. His right arm is scarred from shrapnel from live rounds of
ammunition shot by his kidnappers during a mock execution. Humiliated by what
his kidnappers subjected him to, Ganeen refused to further discuss all the
things they did to him over the nine days. On the last day, he said, after his
kidnappers received a ransom of $40,000, they threw him, blindfolded, in a
trash heap. "The extremists considered us as part of the occupation
though we've been in Iraq since before it was a country," Ganeen
said. "Most of our community has fled Iraq and will never return."

Several Sabian Mandaean elders who listened as Ganeen told
his story said they consider him lucky since he made it out alive, even though
Ganeen says he is still haunted by the ordeal and continues to see a
psychological counselor.

"The past seven years have
been a calamity for Sabian Mandaeans—it's devastating to see our
community whittle away without any hope of returning," said the community's
leader, Sheikh Sattar Jabbar al-Hulu.[287]

We met al-Hulu, wearing traditional, simple white garb and
carrying a long cane, in Baghdad as he was preparing to preside over a
purification ritual along the banks of the Tigris River. On the April 2010 day
we met him, less than a dozen of his fellow Sabians came to participate in the
ritual, which resembled a baptism. The men and women who participated in the
ancient ceremony also wore white cloth, and walked slowly and barefoot into the
muddy water in a scene that looked Biblical.

Since 2003, Sabian leaders estimate that scores of their
community have perished, and they complained that there have been virtually no
prosecutions for the murders. They said they have been targeted for a variety
of reasons including their religion, their perceived wealth (many work as
goldsmiths), and their inability to protect themselves without a militia of
their own. Because their elders traditionally wear long beards, they have been
attacked by Shia militants who have mistaken them for strictly observant Sunni
Arabs (as many of the latter also grow long beards). One Sabian elder in Basra
told us that armed militants attacked him and his bearded brother in their car
in July 2006. "They dragged us out, kicking and punching us and shooting
their weapons around us. They took us to a school where they were going to
execute us because they said they suspected us of being Wahhabis.[288]
The Sabian elder was saved as an Iraqi army unit happened to drive into the
area.

Along with violence, Sabian Mandaeans whom we interviewed in
Basra, Amara, and Baghdad say their communities have also suffered social and
religious injustice, mainly from those "who try to ruin our standing and
reputation by spreading false rumors about our religion. People here [in Iraq]
are generally ignorant that we also believe that God is one. We face a lot of
pressure to leave Iraq."[289]

One Sabian community leader in Basra told us that Sabians
were leaving Iraq even before 2003 but that there has been a "tenfold"
increase since then. "Before—in Saddam's time—we were
all just Iraqis but now we are Christians, Sabians, Shia, Sunnis, Kurds, and so
on. Our country and society have become fragmented."[290]

According to another Sabian elder in Basra, there are no
schools that teach their children in Aramaic. Sabian children must undertake Qur'anic
studies at public schools. In history classes there are no references to
Sabians, despite their being among the oldest communities in the country. Their
girls and women also feel pressured to veil when in public, although their
religion does not mandate this.[291]

Community leaders complained that they are unable to
practice their religion freely and without fear. Governments at all levels have
failed to prevent their exodus, they said. In 2006, assailants using Ak-47s and
other weapons attacked the Basra temple, damaging the structure.[292]

Sheikh Sattar said that some militant imams "have
issued fatwas [religious edicts] against us, calling us infidels and people not
of the book. These fatwas have encouraged extremists to target us for killings,
forced conversions, kidnappings, and arbitrary taxes." [293]

Although some imams have issued positive fatwas, Sattar said
that members of his community face discrimination and hostility because of
Muslim misconceptions about their religion. "People in our religion get
harassed all the time. We can't touch the food or fish of Muslims. Teachers
don't let Sabian students drink from or share the same cup of water with
other students—they
need to bring their own cups in order to drink."

Chaldo-Assyrians

Since 2003, armed groups proclaiming Islamist ideologies
have opposed communities of different faiths living in their vicinity,
especially ones with perceived ties to the supposedly Christian West and, by
association, with the multinational forces in Iraq—they are perceived as
accounting for a high proportion of the translators working for US forces, for
example. These groups have repeatedly attacked the Chaldo-Assyrian community.[294]

The previous Ba'ath government permitted only
Christians and Yazidis, whose religions do not prohibit alcohol use, to sell
liquor. This made them easily identifiable as minorities because of their
trade, which many observant Muslims frown upon. Militias have bombed, looted,
and defaced liquor stores in Mosul and elsewhere.[295]
Organized criminals sometimes faked a jihadist identity to mask a real motive
of extortion and thievery. They regard Christians as rich and without
protection, since Christians traditionally lack tribal or militia links.[296]
Christians active in the jewelry and gold trade have been particular targets
for kidnappings for ransom.

In late 2008 a systematic and orchestrated armed campaign of
targeted killings and violence left 40 Chaldo-Assyrians dead and more than
12,000 displaced from their homes in Mosul.[297] Even before these
attacks, Christians had been fleeing Iraq at much higher rates than other
groups; their number fell to about 675,000 in 2008, from one million in 2003.[298]
Assailants, most likely from groups professing radical Sunni Arab ideologies,
targeted Christians in their homes, at work, and in places of worship.

In the three weeks leading up to the March 7, 2010 national
elections, assailants killed 10 Christians in Mosul in attacks that appeared
politically motivated.[299]
The violence prompted 4,300 Christians to flee the city to the Nineveh Plains. Iraqi
and Kurdish government officials condemned the attacks, and the Government of
Iraq established an investigative committee, but almost a year after the
attacks no perpetrators had been identified or arrested.[300]

On October 31, 2010, in one of the most devastating attacks
against Christians, gunmen in explosive vests stormed Baghdad's Our Lady
of Salvation Catholic Church, during Sunday Mass. The gunmen reportedly
identified themselves as members of the Islamic State of Iraq, an al-Qaeda-linked
group, and took more than a hundred hostages. Two priests and 44 worshippers
were killed when Iraqi security forces stormed the building. [301]

The armed group promised more attacks, declaring Christians
everywhere "legitimate targets."[302] In the weeks that
followed, armed men shot dead Christians in Mosul and targeted Christian homes
throughout Baghdad with mortar shells and homemade bombs, killing at least
three and wounding 26.[303]
According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, about 1,000 Christian
families fled Baghdad and Mosul to northern Iraq after these latest attacks.[304]

The attack on Our Lady of Salvation was the latest in a
continuing assault against Christian places of worship. On July 12, 2009,
assailants bombed seven churches in Baghdad, killing four and injuring 18. In
November and December 2009, assailants bombed five churches and a covenant in
Mosul, killing seven and injuring 40.

Christian leaders say they are helpless as the government
has failed to prevent attacks and protect their areas. Government
investigations are rare and ineffective. In October 2008,

Iraq's Ministry of Human Rights created a committee to
investigate the Mosul attacks that killed 40 Christians. [305]
The committee's unpublished report drew no conclusions as to who was
behind the attacks, or whether Iraqi security forces could have prevented them,
but did state that evidence indicated that the campaign was "targeted,"
"systematic," and "pre-arranged."[306]
Similar to other attacks against minorities, no one was ever arrested, charged,
or prosecuted, according to community leaders.

Two days before we visited Al-Hazin church in Amara, one of
the oldest churches in southern Iraq, a church leader told us that thieves had
broken into the complex and left a threat in the form of a bullet."We can't
say anything because we are afraid," a church leader told us. "In
Iraq, human life is worthless, not even worth a penny. And what about the
Christians? Their life is not even worth close to that."[307]

Chaldo-Assyrian women in Amara say they have started wearing
hijabs and abayas (cloaks) after 2003 even though it is not part of their
religion. In order to maintain good relations with Muslims, the Christian
community in Amara does not smoke or eat in public during Ramadan. "We've
had to adopt their traditions, we don't even celebrate during Christmas
if it falls in Muharram."[308]
In December 2009, Basra's Chaldean bishop called on Christians in
southern Iraq to refrain from public Christmas celebrations because of its
coinciding with Muharram.

Shabaks

Shabaks number between 200,000 and 500,000, and live mainly
in the Nineveh Plains, an area contested between the Iraqi government and
Kurdistan Regional Government.[309]
Insurgent groups have targeted them because about 70 percent of Shabaks adhere
to the Shia sect of Islam, which many Sunnis regard as heretical: for example,
the Islamic State of Iraq distributed a flyer dated October 16, 2007, in Mosul
that described Shabaks as "rejectors" of Islam and asserted that it
is "an obligation to kill them and to displace them with no mercy."[310]
Since 2004, Shabak groups have reported to the UN that more than 750 members of
their community have perished in armed attacks.[311]
Unlike attacks against Christians, these have generally gone unnoticed by media
outside of the country because of the community's obscurity and lack of
an influential diaspora.

In one of the worst attacks in Iraq since 2003, on August
11, 2009, two large flatbed trucks packed with bombs exploded simultaneously in
the Shabak village of al-Khazna. The force of the blast destroyed the town,
leaving 65 houses in heaps of rubble. The casualty toll was at least 35 killed
and almost 200 wounded.[312]

Although no group claimed responsibility, the attack bore
similarities to previous attacks by Sunni insurgent groups and al-Qaeda in
Mesopotamia.

Since 2008, Shabak leaders who have opposed KRG policies in
their territory have increasingly been targeted for attack, with Kurdish forces
implicated in some of the incidents.[313]

On January 7, 2009,
Shabak leader and former parliamentarian Hunain al-Qaddo told Human Rights
Watch that he had survived an assassination attempt that day in the town of Ali
Rish, in the Nineveh Plains.[314] Al-Qaddo said he was on his
way with other Shabaks to participate in the Shia religious festival of Ashura
when his convoy came under fire from men wearing Kurdish security uniforms. When
we met with him in Baghdad in April 2010, he said that the security situation
for the Shabak community was continuing to deteriorate. "On the one hand,
we are targeted by terrorists, and on the other, we are targeted by Kurdish
security forces."[315]

On March 7, 2010, Qusay Abbass, an elected member of Nineveh's
provincial council representing the Shabak quota seat, was hospitalized after peshmerga
(KRG militia) shot him twice at a checkpoint near al-Khazna polling station.[316]
Neither the Kurdistan nor Iraqi authorities announced any investigation into
the incident. Months earlier, on August 16, 2009, an improvised explosive
device targeted Abbass's convoy as he drove to Mosul, lightly injuring
him and two of his bodyguards.[317]

Yazidis

The plight of the Yazidis, similar to that of the Shabaks,
has gone largely unnoticed despite devastating attacks. Numbering between
550,000 and 800,000, Yazidis have deep roots in the Nineveh area, living mainly
around Sinjar and with smaller communities in the Sheikhan
region and in the Kurdish cities of Arbil, Dohuk, and Sulaimaniyya.[318]Yazidis practice a 4,000-year-old religion that centers on
Maluk Ta'us, the Peacock Angel. Historically, they have been subject to
sharp persecution owing to their beliefs and practices, which have been
misconstrued as satanic.[319]

In the worst attacks against civilians anywhere in Iraq
since 2003, on the evening of August 14, 2007, four simultaneous truck bombings
killed more than 300 Yazidis and wounded more than 700 in the Sinjar district
communities of Qahtaniya, Jazira, and Azair, and destroyed nearly 400 homes.[320]

Yazidis continue to be targeted. On August 13, 2009, two
suicide bombers detonated vests packed with explosives in a popular café
in Sinjar city, whose inhabitants are mainly Yazidi, killing at least 21 people
and injuring 32.[321]
After no response or help from the government after the attack, Yazidi
residents in Nineveh surrounded five of their villages with sand barriers in a
desperate attempt to protect themselves.[322]

Persons with Disabilities

Physical Disabilities

On February 11, 1986, at the height of the Iran-Iraq war,
Falah Ali, a tank commander in Basra, lost his legs after his T-55 tank was hit
by a rocket.[323]
Three of his comrades were killed in the attack. He believes his life was
spared because his torso was leaning out the roof hatch when the rocket hit the
vehicle.[324]

Ali told Human Rights Watch that new prosthetics legs are
rare in Iraq, so he has worn the same ones given to him by the government back
in 1987. Ali considers himself lucky because he is able to pay for medical
treatment while "poorer amputees have nothing and are hopeless."[325]

Starting in 1991, the government of Saddam Hussein
significantly reduced the benefits that Ali and other war amputees received.
Ali has had to repair his prostheses himself or at a car repair shop. For most
Iraqis, navigating through checkpoints in Baghdad is a time-consuming and frustrating
process, but for Ali, the stakes are much higher. He said he is at risk every
time he is searched because police sometimes mistake him for a suicide bomber
when they discover the wires he has used to repair his prosthetics. "For
a country that is so rich in resources, why are there so few services for
disabled people, especially those injured serving Iraq in war?" Ali
asked.[326]

For Ali and other persons
with disabilities, the lack of rehabilitation and other services can have
serious consequences on their ability to enjoy other rights, such as education,
employment, and family life, among others. When Ali tries to access government
services, he has to stand in line and wait for prolonged periods with everyone
else, which he finds difficult. Iraq's public buildings are also not
designed to accommodate persons with disabilities.

There are no official figures on how many persons with
disabilities live in Iraq, but estimates range from one to three million.[327]
According to its Constitution, Iraq should safeguard the rights of persons with
disabilities and "ensure their rehabilitation in order to reintegrate
them into society."[328]
Iraq has taken some positive steps—the government is in the process of
ratifying the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), and
the Council of Representatives has before it a bill to establish a national
body for the welfare of persons with disabilities. The government has assigned
a proportion of government positions to persons with disabilities, and it has
held conferences and workshops to raise awareness of the rights of persons with
disabilities and to promote their integration into society.[329]

Despite these efforts, Iraq's government has not taken
the necessary steps to ensure that persons with disabilities do not face
discrimination and enjoy their rights on an equal basis with others in Iraq, as
required under the CRPD. This applies to the right to education, employment,
personal mobility, healthcare, and comprehensive rehabilitation services and
programs, among other things.

According to interviews with persons with disabilities, the
government needs to do more to ensure access to education and employment,
provide healthcare and other services, and reintegrate them into society.[330]
Without specific efforts on their behalf, people with disabilities are unlikely
to benefit from mainstream education and employment opportunities. Economic
self-sufficiency for people with disabilities is essential to their integration
in the community, social independence, ability to access services such as healthcare,
support themselves and their families, and to increase their self-confidence.

One war amputee, who lost
both his legs during the Iran-Iraq war after he stepped on a landmine in the
border area near Amara in 1988, relies on a worn-out 20-year-old wheelchair.[331] Over the years he has had to replace almost every part—he
said the only remaining original part of the wheelchair is the frame. "I
can buy a new poorly constructed Chinese model that is worse than what I have
now. But I can't afford a proper $750 model on my $180 [war veteran's]
pension," he said. "Iraq is a very difficult place for disabled
people—society and the government do not care about us, no one will hire
a disabled person."

Another war amputee had his legs amputated after he
contracted gangrene as a result of injuries received during an Iranian mortar
attack east of Basra in 1987.[332]
He said that he is unable to find employment because of discrimination. He also
continues to rely on his worn-out 20-year-old wheelchair and is unable to
afford medical care. "In Saddam's time, we had a Veteran Affairs
Department that helped, but now no such office exists. Healthcare was free to
us before but not anymore."

In Baghdad, Human Rights Watch met with the staff of a local
NGO, the Iraqi Alliance of Disability Organizations, and interviewed war
amputees, who told us that persons with disabilities cannot often afford
necessary specialized medical treatments or even wheelchairs and other special
equipment.[333]

To compound these challenges, a lack of qualified medical
personnel, inadequate facilities, and security problems continue to plague healthcare
services in Iraq. The Health Ministry has 21 rehabilitation centers and 12
prosthetics workshops, and lacks doctors and technicians to open more.[334]

In the 1990s, the country
had 34,000 physicians registered with the Iraqi Medical Association. By 2008,
this number dropped by almost half to around 16,000, a trend the country has
not reversed despite a 2008 government appeal for medical staff to return to
the country.[335]Nurses are also scarce. While
the standard nurse-to-doctor ratio in most countries is around three to one, in
Iraq, according to government estimates, the Iraq ratio is almost one to one.
Facilities already coping with poor electricity or water supplies frequently
have to deal also with unreliable sewage or air-cooling systems and inadequate
solid-waste disposal. Equipment is often old and poorly maintained, and
sometimes not operated correctly.[336]

Professionals, including medical personnel, have been prime
targets for abductions by insurgents and criminals. Between 2003 and 2008,
official Iraqi sources reported that targeted violence killed more than 2,200
doctors and nurses.[337]
Many more escaped threats by fleeing to neighboring countries.

Invisible
Impacts of War

Decades of repression and violence have traumatized people
at every level of Iraqi society. Iraqi psychiatrists say mental disabilities
are on the rise across the country.[338]Iraq's
government has earmarked less than 1 per cent of the country's total healthcare
budget to mental health, has failed to establish community mental health
centers, has been unable to secure essential pharmaceuticals, and has not
developed a viable mental healthcare monitoring system.[339] A
2007-2008 national mental health national survey carried out by the Iraq
Ministry of Health in collaboration with the World Health Organization found
that only a minority of people with mental disabilities received any treatment.[340]
The survey results also showed that only a minority of patients who seek
treatment for mental disabilities in Iraq receive treatment that meets even the
most minimal standards of adequacy.

In every city Human Rights Watch visited, we met with Iraqis
who had experienced trauma first-hand and were still struggling with its
effects: a woman in Baghdad who tried to burn herself to death because of
spousal abuse; a detainee in Al Rusafa prison who now suffers from insomnia and
bedwetting as a result of torture; a Sabian leader in Basra who has flashbacks
years after he was kidnapped and tortured; a woman at an IDP camp in Baghdad
who is still traumatized after assailants abducted her husband and son in front
of her at a checkpoint years earlier, never to be seen again.

According to the UN World Health Organization (WHO), the
fourth leading cause of morbidity among Iraqis older than five years is "mental
disorders," which ranked higher than infectious disease.[341]

According to Iraq's psychiatric association, the
country has only 100 psychiatrists to serve a population of about 30 million .
Many people self-medicate, and prescription drug abuse is now the number one
substance abuse problem in Iraq. Al-Rashad, the country's largest
government-fundedmental health facility, has seen a 10 percent increase
in patients this year, and has had to turn people away because of over-crowding.[342]

International
Standards Protecting the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

The Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling,
Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction, to
which Iraq acceded on August 15, 2007, requires states to provide assistance
for the care and rehabilitation, and social and economic reintegration, of mine
victims and for mine awareness programs.[343]

The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
(CRPD), which Iraq has pledged to ratify (and is completing domestic procedures
for accession) makes explicit that the human rights enumerated in other major
human rights documents apply with equal force and in particularly important
ways to individuals with disabilities. [344] Several articles
in the CRPD are particularly relevant in the Iraqi context. Article 11 of the
CRPD requires that states shall take "all necessary measures to ensure
the protection and safety of persons with disabilities in situations of risk,
including situations of armed conflict, humanitarian emergencies and the
occurrence of natural disasters."[345]

One of the core principles of the CRPD is accessibility. In
implementing the CRPD, States are obligated to "enable persons with
disabilities to live independently and participate fully in all aspects of life
…"[346]
This includes measures to ensure that persons with disabilities have "access,
on an equal basis with others, to the physical environment, to transportation,
to information and communications, including information and communications
technologies and systems, and to other facilities and services open or provided
to the public, both in urban and in rural areas."[347] The
CRPD also includes specific provisions on the right to education and employment
for persons with disabilities.[348]

Article 20 of the CRPD requires states parties to "take
effective measures to ensure personal mobility with the greatest possible
independence for persons with disabilities."[349] This
includes "facilitating access by persons with disabilities to quality
mobility aids, devices, assistive technologies and forms of live assistance and
intermediaries, including by making them available at affordable cost."[350]

The highest attainable standard of health is a fundamental
human right enshrined in numerous international and regional human rights
instruments, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the ICESCR,
the CRC, CEDAW, and the CRPD. The ICESCR specifies that everyone has a right "to
the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health,"
and the CRPD clarifies that this right must be upheld "without
discrimination on the basis of disability."[351]

One of the core principles of international law regarding
accessibility to health services is that of non-discrimination, especially for "the
most vulnerable or marginalized sections of the population."[352]
The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which monitors states'
implementation of the ICESCR, has provided examples of what may constitute a
failure of a government to fulfill its obligations with respect to the right to
health. The examples include failing to adopt or implement a national health
policy designed to ensure the right to health for everyone, insufficient
expenditure or misallocation of available public resources which leads to the
non-enjoyment of the right to health by individuals or groups, particularly the
vulnerable or marginalized.[353]

CRPD provisions on rehabilitation are particularly important
for amputees and other war-wounded in Iraq. Rehabilitation is the process of
removing or reducing as far as possible the factors that limit a person with a disability
so that he or she can attain the highest possible level of independence and
quality of life. Interventions may include medical care, supply of assistive
devices, physical or occupational therapy, psycho-social services, or other
social support.[354]
Article 26 obligates States to "organize, strengthen and extend comprehensive
rehabilitation services and programmes, particularly in the areas of health,
employment, education and social services."[355]

International Standards
Protecting Minority Rights

Iraq made a declaration, upon
gaining independence and joining the League of Nations in 1932, that it would
protect the rights of minorities—the first non-European state to so
declare. With the formation of the United Nations after World War II, the
international community recognized the particular vulnerability of minorities around
the world to human rights abuses. In December 1948 the UN General Assembly
adopted the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of
Genocide.[356] In 1971, Iraq ratified the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.[357]
Article 26 of the Covenant prohibits discrimination on grounds of race,
religion, and language, and article 27 states: "In those States in which
ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities exist, persons belonging to such
minorities shall not be denied the right, in community with the other members
of their group, to enjoy their own culture, to profess and practice their own
religion, or to use their own language."

Iraq assumed the obligation to protect minority rights by
also ratifying the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Racial Discrimination[358]and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.[359]The latter specifically requires the
education of a child to be directed to the "development of ... his or her
own cultural identity, language and values" and gives a child of a
religious minority the right "to enjoy his or her own culture, [and] to
profess and practise his or her own religion."[360]

Additionally,
the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) passed declarations that articulate
best practices and human rights standards for the protection of minorities. The
UNGA Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of
Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief (1981) protects the "freedom to have a religion ... and freedom ... to
manifest his religion or belief in worship, observance, practice and teaching",
and prohibits "coercion which would impair [t]his freedom."[361] Assembly for worship, observance of
religious holidays, maintaining and erecting buildings for worship, acquiring
items for use in religious rituals, religious teaching and appointment of
religious leaders, fundraising for religion, and communication with
coreligionists are activities that fall within the protection of freedom of
religion.[362] According to the UNGA's Declaration on the
Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious or Linguistic
Minorities (1993), states are obliged to take "measures to create
favourable conditions to enable persons belonging to minorities to express
their characteristics and to develop their culture, language, religion,
traditions and customs."[363] The declaration also says
that states must protect the identity of minorities within their respective
territories by encouraging "conditions for the promotion of that identity"
and measures allowing minority members to "participate fully in the
economic progress and development in their country."[364] It states that minorities have the right to establish and
maintain their own associations. Minorities also have "the right to
participate effectively in decisions on the national and, where appropriate,
regional level concerning the minority."[365]

Minority rights protections are further incorporated into
international law through regional instruments, such as the Council of Europe's
Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities and the European
Charter for Minority Languages, and the Arab Charter on Human Rights.[366]
The Arab Charter, adopted by the Council of the League of Arab States in
2004, states that "minorities shall not be deprived of their right to
enjoy their culture or to follow the teachings of their religions."[367]
Further, the Arab Charter prohibits denying an individual's rights
because of his or her "race, colour, sex, language, religion, political
opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status and without
any discrimination between men and women."[368]

National Standards Protecting the Rights of Minorities
and Persons with Disabilities

Iraq's constitution, in article 2, "guarantees
the full religious right" and "freedom of religious belief and
practice of all individuals" such as Christians, Yazidis, and Sabian
Mandaeans.[369]
Article 3 explicitly recognizes that Iraq is a country of multiple
nationalities, religions, and sects.[370] Article 4
guarantees the right to educate children in their mother tongue (such as
Turkmen, Syriac, and Armenian).[371]
According to article 14, all Iraqis are "equal before the law without
discrimination based on gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, origin, color,
religion, sect, belief or opinion, or economic or social status."[372]

Iraq's constitution
guarantees social and health security, as well as housing and special care and
rehabilitation programs, to Iraqis in cases of old age, sickness, employment
disability, homelessness, orphanhood, or unemployment.[373] Article
32 demands that Iraq safeguard the rights of persons with disabilities and "ensure
their rehabilitation in order to reintegrate them into society."[374]

Recommendations

To
the Government of Iraq

Concerning Women's Rights

Amend the penal code and all other legislation to remove any law
that discriminates against women and allows mitigation on grounds of "honor"
for violent crimes against women;

Finalize and pass a law to combat human trafficking with an
emphasis on trafficking women and girls for the purposes of sexual
exploitation. Trafficked women should not be punished under this law, and
should be referred to social welfare agencies for financial assistance as well
as health and social services;

Provide preventive and protection programs and facilities,
including adequate shelters, for women at risk of violence or abuse; and

Ensure that widows can access government services and aid by
removing burdensome documentation requirements.

Concerning Freedom of Expression

Suspend and then amend penal and civil code provisions and other
legislation and regulations to remove or precisely define, in line with
international standards of freedom of expression, any vaguely expressed
content-based restrictions, and to remove excessive penalties on journalists
and media outlets, including imprisonment, suspensions, excessive fines, and
equipment confiscation, especially for minor infractions;

Investigate and prosecute assaults by security forces and others
against journalists, and direct all security forces to end the use of force to
intimidate, harass, arrest, rough up, or prevent journalists from doing their
work; and

Direct government agencies to stop filing politically motivated
lawsuits against journalists and their publications.

Concerning Torture

Launch independent and impartial Investigations into all
allegations of torture and ill-treatment, and institute disciplinary measures
or criminal prosecution, as appropriate, against officials at all levels who
are responsible for the abuse of detainees;

Conduct prompt medical examinations of detainees who allege abuse
in detention or during interrogation;

Publicly condemn any use of torture or other mistreatment in
pretrial detention, including during interrogation with the aim of eliciting
confessions;

Finalize ratification of the Convention against Torture and Other
Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment and ratify the Optional Protocol; and

Invite the Special Rapporteur on Torture to examine the situation
in all of Iraq's detention facilities.

Concerning Marginalized Groups

In line with the United Nations Guiding Principles on Internal
Displacement, provide protection and assistance to internally displaced
persons, including shelter, food, water, sanitation, and medical services.
Prioritize the needs of vulnerable groups such as minorities;

Develop a coherent, comprehensive national strategy on refugees
and internally displaced persons to facilitate their voluntary return, local
integration in places of displacement, or relocation to other places in safety
and dignity. This plan should also provide a mechanism for fair resolution of
property disputes involving displacement, compensation for loss of property,
and assistance to relocate and reintegrate squatters evicted from places where
they are living illegally, as well as assistance for returnees to reintegrate
in accordance with the UN Guiding Principles and international refugee law;

Protect minorities at all levels of government, including
regional and local administrations;

Initiate independent and impartial investigations of all
killings, beatings, and torture against minorities;

Ensure access to education and employment opportunities for
persons with disabilities;

Establish or strengthen healthcare and otherservices for
persons withdisabilities, including rehabilitation and psycho-social
support;

Facilitate access for persons with disabilities to quality
mobility aids and other assistive devices, including by making them available
at affordable cost; and

In line with the convention on the rights of persons with
disabilities, consult with disabled peoples' organizations and experts
with disabilities in designing and implementing programs and policies to make
sure they are disability-inclusive.

To
the Governments of the United States and the United Kingdom

Continue to investigate and prosecute crimes by US and UK forces,
including those with command responsibility, against Iraqis;

Assist with legal reform in Iraq in to ensure existing laws are
amended to be consistent with Iraq's obligations under international
human rights standards;

Continue to provide financial and technical assistance to civil
society organizations providing services to women and girls who have suffered
sexual violence, trafficking, or forced marriage, or who fear reprisals from
their families in the form of honor killings;

Ensure that no one at risk of torture or other ill-treatment is
transferred into Iraqi custody;

Press the Government of Iraq to promptly investigate all
allegations of torture and ill-treatment, and criminally prosecute officials
who are responsible for the abuse of detainees;

Monitor and assist the performance of criminal justice, police,
security, and counterterrorism institutions and personnel in Iraq to ensure
full compliance with international human rights standards;

Continue to make refugee resettlement places available for
refugees who are not able or willing to return to Iraq, particularly for people
who are persecuted or threatened because of their actual or imputed association
with the United States and other vulnerable groups; and

In addition to targeted funding for programs for persons with
disabilities, make sure that all funded programs are accessible to persons with
disabilities.

Acknowledgments

Samer Muscati, researcher in the Middle East and North
Africa (MENA) Division of Human Rights Watch, authored this
report based on research conducted in Iraq with consultant Olivier Bercault in
April 2010. Nadya Khalife, Middle East and North Africa researcher in
the

Women's Rights Division (WRD), conducted subsequent
research in Kurdistan in June 2010.

The report was reviewed and edited by Joe
Stork, Deputy Director of the Middle East and North Africa division, Nadya
Khalife, Bill Frelick, Refugee Program director, Shantha Rau Barriga, Disability
Rights researcher and advocate, and Zama Coursen-Neff,
Deputy Director of the Children's Rights Division. Clive Baldwin, senior
legal advisor, and Cassandra Cavanaugh, program consultant, provided legal and
program reviews.

Human Rights Watch wishes to thank consultants Daniel W.
Smith and Yousif al-Timimi, who were instrumental in organizing the mission and
conducting follow-up research in Iraq.

Human Rights watch also thanks Hanaa Edwar and the staff at the
Iraqi Al-Amal Association; the Journalistic Freedoms Observatory; the Women
Leadership Institute; the Hammurabi Org. for Human Rights & Democracy
Monitoring; the Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq; journalist Kamal
Chomani; and former Minister of Human Rights Wijdan Michael Salim and the
ministry's staff for their assistance in facilitating Human Rights Watch's
research mission.

Annex

November
12, 2010

His
Excellency Nuri Al Maliki

Prime
Minister

Republic
of Iraq

Baghdad

Your
Excellency,

Human
Rights Watch is an international human rights organization that conducts
investigations into human rights violations in more than 90 countries globally.
We have a long history documenting human rights abuses in Iraq, particularly
under the government of Saddam Hussein.

We
are currently preparing a survey report focused on various human rights
violations that we investigated during a four-week fact-finding mission in April 2010, when a Human
Rights Watch research team visited the cities of Baghdad, Basra, Tikrit, Najaf,
Karbala, Amara, and Sulaimaniyya. Weinterviewed
180 Iraqis, including victims of human rights abuses as well as rights
activists, representatives of non-governmental organizations, journalists,
lawyers, political and religious leaders, and government and security
officials.

Based on
that research, we will shortly be releasing a report documenting our findings
on violence against women and minorities, the plight of persons with
disabilities and internally displaced persons, freedom of expression, and
torture.

The purpose
of this letter is to share with the government those findings and also recommendations, and
also to provide the government with an opportunity to comment on our findings
and our recommendations so that we may reflect the government's perspective
when we release the report. For this purpose we hope that the government can
respond by December 5, 2010. We would also welcome the opportunity to meet with
you prior to the release of our report, now expected in late December, to
discuss these important matters further.

Below
we share our main findings and recommendations, broken down by issue.

1. Rights of Women and
Girls

a. Findings. The deterioration of security since 2003, combined
with a rise in tribal influence, religiously-inflected political extremism, and
hard-line conservative political parties, have all had a deleterious effect on
women and girls. An increase in violence against women, including
"honor" crimes and domestic abuse, as well as forced and early
marriages, have contributed to a loss of autonomy and mobility for women. Women
and girls also face the prospect of physical harm at the hands of militias and
extremists. Iraqi law in some cases protects perpetrators of violence against
women. Iraq's penal code considers "honorable motives" to be
a mitigating factor in serious crimes, including murder. The code also gives
husbands a "legal right" to discipline their wives. Despite the
fact that women and girls are trafficked in and out of the country for sexual
exploitation a long-awaited anti-trafficking bill is on hold. Outside of
Kurdistan, there are no government-run women's shelters.

b. Recommendations

Amend the penal code and all other
legislation to remove any provision that discriminates against women and allows
mitigation on grounds of "honor" for violent crimes against women;

Finalize and pass a law to combat
human trafficking, with an emphasis on trafficking women and girls for the
purposes of sexual exploitation. Trafficked women, the victims, should not be
punished under the law, and should be referred to social welfare agencies for
financial assistance as well as health and social services; and

Provide preventive and protection
programs and facilities, including adequate shelters, for women and girls at
risk of violence or abuse.

Freedom of Expression

a. Findings. While improvements in security since 2007 have
reduced the murder rate of media workers, journalism remains a hazardous
occupation. Political extremists and unknown assailants continue to kill media
workers and bomb their bureaus. Increasingly, journalists find themselves
harassed, intimidated, threatened, arrested, and physically assaulted by
security forces attached to Iraqi and Kurdish government institutions and
political parties. Senior politicians are quick to sue journalists and their
publications for unflattering articles.

b.Recommendations

Suspend immediately and amend as
soon as possible penal code provisions and other legislation and regulations to
remove or precisely define, in line with international standards of freedom of
expression, vaguely expressed content-based restrictions, and to remove
excessive penalties on journalists and media outlets, including imprisonment,
suspensions, excessive fines and equipment confiscation, especially for minor
infractions;

Investigate and prosecute assaults
by security forces and others against journalists, and direct all security

Direct government officials and
agencies to stop filing politically motivated lawsuits against journalists and
their publications.

Torture

a. Findings. Iraqi interrogators routinely abuse detainees as a
means to obtain confessions. Interviews with dozens of detainees transferred
from a secret detention facility outside Baghdad revealed the significant
shortcomings of Iraq's criminal justice system. Interrogators sodomized
and whipped detainees, burned them with cigarettes, and pulled out their
fingernails and teeth. You, as prime minister, instead of ordering a public
inquiry and prosecuting those responsible for the abuse, dismissed the findings
as fictitious and suspended the government's prison inspection team that
initially uncovered the abuse.

b.Recommendations:

Publicly condemn any use of
torture or other mistreatment in pretrial detention, including during
interrogation with the aim of eliciting confessions;

Launch independent and impartial
Investigations into all allegations of torture and ill-treatment, and institute
disciplinary measures or criminal prosecution, as appropriate, against
officials at all levels who are responsible for the abuse of detainees; and

Conduct prompt independent medical
examinations of detainees who allege abuse in detention or during
interrogation.

Displaced persons

Findings. More than 1.5 million Iraqis fled their neighborhoods
as sectarian violence tore up their communities in 2006 and 2007. Thousands of
internally displaced persons now reside in squatter settlements without access
to basic necessities such as clean water, electricity, and sanitation. As
squatters, they constantly fear eviction. An over-stretched Ministry of
Displacement has promised aid, but the displaced persons we interviewed had
received nothing. Many of the displaced are widows with few job prospects.
These women and their children find themselves caught in a desperate situation
that has contributed to an increase in sex trafficking and forced prostitution.
Religious and government institutions are sometimes complicit in the
exploitation – in exchange for their charity or benefits, widows have
been asked to engage in "pleasure marriages," a previously banned
traditional practice that is akin to prostitution.

b. Recommendations

In line with the United Nations
Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, provide protection and assistance
to internally displaced persons, including shelter, food, water, sanitation and
medical services, prioritizing the needs of vulnerable groups; and

Develop a coherent, fully-funded
comprehensive national strategy on refugees and internally displaced persons to
facilitate their voluntary return, local integration in places of displacement,
or relocation to other places in safety and dignity. This plan should also
provide a mechanism for fair resolution of property disputes involving
displacement, compensation for loss of property, and assistance to relocate and
reintegrate squatters evicted from places where they are living illegally, as
well as assistance for returnees to reintegrate in accordance with the UN
Guiding Principles and international refugee law; and

The international community should
continue to make refugee resettlement places available for refugees who are not
able or willing to return to Iraq.

Persons with Disabilities

a. Findings. Years of armed conflict have generated thousands of
war amputees and other persons with disabilities. Stigmatized, unable to find
work, get adequate medical care, or obtain new prosthesis and wheelchairs,
persons with disabilities find themselves relegated to the margins of society.
Persons with disabilities told us that the government is a long way from the
Constitution's promise of "rehabilitating" and
"reintegrating" them into society. Trauma from violence has also
increased mental disabilities across the country but few psychiatrists are
available to treat them and other means of support are not available, resulting
in a rise in self-medicating and prescription drug abuse. Because the
government has provided little support or assistance to people with
disabilities, local NGOs have had to step in to fill the void but demand for
their services far exceeds their capacity.

b. Recommendations:

Take measures to fight stigma and
discrimination, for example through media and public education programs about
the rights of persons with disabilities;

Establish or strengthen health
care services, including rehabilitation and psycho-social support; and

Facilitate access for persons with
disabilities to quality mobility aids and other assistive devices, including by
making them available at affordable cost.

Minorities

a. Findings: Extremist groups continue to attack minority
communities, most recently on October 31 with an assault on a Baghdad church
that claimed the lives of almost 50 worshipers and priests. Such attacks have
led thousands from Iraq's indigenous communities to flee abroad since the
invasion in 2003 with no plans to return. Sabian Mandaeans face extinction as a
people after 90 per cent of the small community have either fled Iraq or been
killed since 2003. The government has failed to stop targeted attacks
against any of its minority groups, including Chaldo-Assyrians, Yazidis,
Shabaks, and Turkmen. It has also failed to conduct thorough and impartial
investigations when attacks occur, and to bring those responsible to justice,
adding to a climate of impunity.

b. Recommendations:

Protect minorities at all levels
of government, including regional and local administrations; and

Initiate independent and impartial
investigations of all killings, beatings, and torture against minorities.

We
look forward to receiving your comments on the above issues, any additional
comments you wish to provide, and information on any reforms the Iraqi
government is considering.

We
appreciate your consideration and review of this information request. As noted
above, we will reflect among our findings all pertinent information the
government provides to us by December 5, 2010. We also reiterate our interest
in arranging a meeting to discuss these issues in person.

[2]Suad Joseph, "Elite
Strategies for State-Building: Women, Family, Religion and State in Iraq and
Lebanon," in Deniz Kandiyoti, ed., Women, Islam and the State
(Leiden, The Netherlands: E.J. Brill, 1992), p. 178-79.

[3]Article 19 declares all
citizens equal before the law regardless of sex, blood, language, social
origin, or religion.

[4]The Compulsory Education Law 118/1976 stated that
education is compulsory and free of charge for children of both sexes from six
to ten years of age. Girls were free to leave school thereafter with the
approval of their parents or guardians. See UN Committee on the Elimination of
Discrimination Against Women, "Second and Third Periodic Reports of State
Parties: Republic of Iraq," CEDAW/C/IRQ/2-3, October 19, 1998, pp. 11-12.

[5]All illiterate persons between the ages fifteen and
forty-five had to attend classes at local "literacy centers."
Although many conservative sectors of Iraqi society refused to allow women in
their communities to go to such centers (despite potential prosecution), the
literacy gap between males and females narrowed. See UN Economic and Social
Commission for Western Asia, "Arab Women in ESCWA Member States,"
E/ESCWA/STAT/1994/17, 1994, p. 88.

[6]Articles 80-89 of the Unified Labor Code (originally
Law 151/1970, replaced by Law 81/1987) established "protections of
working women." Article 4 established the right to equal pay. Under the
Maternal Law of 1971, women received six months paid maternity leave and could
take six additional months of unpaid leave.

[7]Under
the 1978 changes to the law divorced women had
custody of their children until the age of ten (up previously from seven for
boys and nine for girls) at which time a judge could extend the custody to the
child's fifteenth birthday at which point the teenager could choose which
parent to live with. The Code of Personal Status was first promulgated in 1959
under the regime of Abd al-Karim Qasim, which took power after the overthrow of
the Hashemite monarchy in July 1958. Until that time, family laws were based on
tradition or customary law and had never been codified. Qasim was executed in
1963 and many of the family law reforms he had implemented were reversed by the
successive rulers under religious pressure. See Joseph, "Elite Strategies
for State-Building," in Kandiyoti, ed., p. 184. See also Eric Davis, Memories
of State: Politics, History and Collective Identity in Modern Iraq
(Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2005).

[8]Amal Rassam, "Political Ideology and Women in
Iraq: Legislation and Cultural Constraints," Joseph G. Jabbra and Nancy Walstrom Jabbra, eds., Women and Development in the Middle East and North
Africa (New York: Brill, 1992), p. 84.

[9]Ibid., p. 91. It is also
suggested that this may have been done to intimidate religious institutions and
authorities.

[10]The Iraqi government
suffered large human and material losses in its eight-year war with Iran. At
the war's end in 1988, lower oil prices prohibited the state from
maintaining the massive social welfare state that it created in the 1970s. The
economic impact of the 1991 Gulf War further fueled social discontent and the
Ba'ath party reversed many of its earlier social policies. In an attempt
to foster loyalty among tribal and religious groups, Saddam Hussein began
incorporating religious rhetoric into the party's platform and also reinstated
tribal sheikhs as leaders, arming them and giving them land. See Sami Zubaida,
"The Rise and Fall of Civil Society in Iraq," February 5, 2003,
Open Democracy http://www.opendemocracy.net/conflict-iraqwarquestions/article_953.jsp
(accessed December 22, 2010).

[11]UN Office of the
Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq (UNOCHR), "Occasional Paper: Situation
of Women in Iraq," May 28, 2003.

[12]"Death Rate of Iraq Mothers Triples, UN Survey
Finds," Agence France-Presse, November 4, 2003. According to the UN
Population Fund survey, the number rose to 310 cases of maternal death per
100,000 live births in 2002 from 117 cases in 1989. See also Mohamed M. Ali,
John Blacker, and Gareth Jones, "Annual mortality rates and excess deaths
of children under five in Iraq, 1991-98," Population Studies Vol.
57 no. 2, 2003, 217–26.

[18] Some non-Iraqi
perpetrators have been held to account, but few if any Iraqi nationals have
been prosecuted. In one notorious 2006 incident that garnered international outrage,
US soldiers entered the house of 14-year-old Abeer Qassim al-Janabi, near
Mahmudiyya, shot dead her mother, father and sister, and then raped the girl
before shooting her and setting fire to her remains. The US did convict the
perpetrators. "Life for US soldier's Iraq crime," BBC,
September 4, 2009, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8239206.stm
(accessed September 11, 2010).

[26]"National report
submitted in accordance with paragraph 15 (A) of the annex to Human Rights
Council Resolution 5/1," Government of Iraq submission to the Universal
Periodic Review, A/HRC/WG.6/7/IRQ/1, January 18, 2010,
http://lib.ohchr.org/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/Session7/IQ/A_HRC_WG.6_7_IRQ_1_E.pdf
(accessed December 22).

[58]Mut'ah
(also known as pleasure marriage) is a temporary marriage contract between a
man and an unmarried woman for a specific timeframe (ranging from an hour to
months) that often stipulates the "wife" will be paid a designated
sum of money. Women who become pregnant are not entitled to child support.
Often, the marriages are conducted in secret, unbeknownst to family members. Some
clerics argue the practice prevents adultery while critics view it as a form of
prostitution. The practice is not addressed in Iraq's Personal Status
Code.

[98]Iraq
became a state party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights (ICCPR) on January 25, 1971; the International Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) on January 25, 1971, the Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) on August 13,
1986; and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) on June 15, 1994.

[99]Committee
on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women,
"Violence Against Women," General Recommendation no. 19 (eleventh
session, 1992), UN Document CEDAW/C/1992/L.1/Add.15.

[101]The
text states: "For the purposes of the present Convention, the term
‘discrimination against women' shall mean any distinction,
exclusion or restriction made on the basis of sex which has the effect or
purpose of impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment or exercise by
women, irrespective of their marital status, on a basis of equality of men and
women, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic,
social, cultural, civil or any other field."

[104]
At the UN International Conference on Population and Development held in
October 1994 in Cairo and the U.N. Fourth World Conference on Women held in
September 1995 in Beijing, governments explicitly endorsed women's sexual
autonomy. In the 1994 Cairo Programme of Action on Population and Development,
not attended by Iraq, governments pledged to eliminate all practices that
discriminate against women and to assist women to "establish and realize
their rights, including those that relate to reproductive and sexual
health." In the 1995 Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action,
attended by Iraq, delegates from governments around the world recognized that
women's human rights include their right to have control over and decide
freely and responsibly on matters related to their sexuality free of coercion,
discrimination, and violence. See United Nations, Programme of Action of the
United Nations International Conference on Population and Development (New
York: United Nations Publications, 1994), A/CONF.171/13, 18 October 1994, para.
4.4(c); and United Nations, Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (New
York: United Nations Publications, 1995), A/CONF.177/20, 17 October 1995, para.
223.

[109]Article
2 of the ICCPR requires governments to provide an effective remedy for abuses
and to ensure the rights to life and security of the person of all individuals
in their jurisdiction, without distinction of any kind including sex.

[113]According
to paragraph 128(1), "Legal excuse either discharges a person from a
penalty or reduces that penalty. Excuse only exists under conditions that are
specified by law. Notwithstanding these conditions, the commission of an
offence with honorable motives or in response to the unjustified and serious
provocation of a victim of an offence is considered a mitigating excuse."

[114] In April 2000 the Kurdish authority controlled by the
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan issued Decree No. 59: "The killing or abuse
of women with the pretext of cleansing the shame is not considered to be a
mitigating excuse. The court may not apply articles 130 and 132 of the Iraqi
Penal Code number 111 of the year 1969 as amended to reduce the penalty of the
perpetrator." In 2002 the Kurdish authority controlled by the Kurdistan
Democratic Party issued Law No. 14: "The perpetration of a crime with
respect to women under the pretext of honorable motives shall not be considered
an extenuating legal excuse for the purposes of applying the rules of articles
128, 130 and 131 of the Penal Code, number 111, 1969, amended."

[125]
The Committee to Protect Journalists has not found evidence to conclude that US
troops targeted the 16 slain journalists and has classified the cases as
crossfire. CPJ, "Journalists in Danger: A statistical profile of media
deaths and abductions in Iraq 2003-09," July 23, 2008, http://cpj.org/reports/2008/07/journalists-killed-in-iraq.php
(accessed October 1, 2010).

[126]One
such case involved journalist Ibrahim Jassim, whom US forces freed on February
10, 2010, after holding him for 17 months without charge. In September 2008, US
and Iraqi forces smashed in the doors of his house in Mahmudiya town, south of
Baghdad, and detained him first at Camp Bucca and then Camp Cropper. US
authorities never charged Ibrahim, who worked for Reuters as a freelance TV
cameraman and photographer, and did not disclose any evidence against him.
Despite a December 2008 ruling by the Iraqi Central Criminal Court that there
was insufficient evidence to hold Ibrahim, the US military defied the ruling
and refused to release him because, they claimed, classified intelligence
reports indicated he was a security threat. When we met with Jassim in Baghdad
two months after his release, he said he never previously had had any run-ins
with US forces, even travelling with them on assignment as an embedded
journalist. He said he has no idea why US forces detained him. "During my
interrogations, the officers would threaten that if I wasn't forthcoming,
they would release me to the Iraqi army who would take me to an Iraqi detention
facility and torture me there.… Once I was asked by one of my
interrogators whether I thought Americans were unjust. I responded,
‘Yes,' according to this experience." Human Rights Watch
Interview with Ibrahim Jassem, Baghdad, April 22, 2010. See also "Ibrahim
Jassam, Iraqi Photographer For Reuters, Released By US Military,"
Associated Press, February 2, 2010, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/10/ibrahim-jassam-iraqi-phot_n_456598.html
(accessed September 11, 2010).

• On September 14, 2009, bodyguards from the
Baghdad Provincial Council severely beat a group of 10 journalists and
photographers from Al-Iraqiyya television as they were on their way to cover a
council meeting. The bodyguards forced the group out of their car and beat them
with rifle butts, hands, and clubs.

• On April 17, 2010, police reportedly attacked
at least eight Kurdish journalists in Sulaimaniyya when they went to cover a
student demonstration outside the department of education building. According
to the journalists, the police seized and destroyed three cameras.

• On August 11, 2010, Kurdish security forces,
including police and Asayesh officers (KRG secret police), allegedly harassed a
group of journalists—and opened fire on one—after the journalists
covered a demonstration by villagers over water shortages.

[166]
Penal Code No. 111 of 1969 (with amendments). Under a 2008 law passed by the
Kurdistan Regional Government, imprisonment is no longer a penalty for
publication-related offenses. However, enforcement of the law has not been
consistent. Journalists in the KRG continue to be tried, convicted, and
imprisoned under the 1969 penal code.

[182]
The Johannesburg Principles set out standards for the protection of freedom of
expression in the context of national

security laws. They were adopted on October 1, 1995,
by a group of experts in international law, national security, and human

rights convened by the International Centre Against
Censorship, in collaboration with the Centre for Applied Legal

Studies of the University of the Witwatersrand, in
Johannesburg. They have been endorsed by the UN Special Rapporteur on

Freedom of Opinion and Expression and referred to by
the Commission in their annual resolutions on freedom of expression every year
since 1996. See The Johannesburg Principles on National Security, Freedom of
Expression and Access to Information (Johannesburg Principles), adopted on
October 1, 1995, http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/johannesburg.html
(accessed September 10, 2010).

[226]Investigative
report on alleged abuses at US military prisons in Abu Ghraib and Camp Bucca,
Iraq, by Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba, "Article 15-6 Investigation of the
800th Military Police Brigade." Taguba noted the following incidents of
criminal abuse inflicted on several detainees:

[228]Through
most of 2003 and 2004, the task force maintained a detention and interrogation
facility within Camp Nama, at the Baghdad International Airport. The camp was
off-limits to the International Committee of the Red Cross, as well as ordinary
military personnel. The task force moved to another location near Balad in the
summer of 2004. Human Rights Watch, No Blood, No Foul: Soldiers'
Accounts of Detainee Abuse in Iraq.

[230]In
March 2008, Des Browne, then the British Defence Secretary, acknowledged a
serious violation of Article 2 and Article 3 (the right to life and freedom
from torture and inhuman or degrading treatment) of the European Convention on
Human Rights had taken place. In July 2008 the Ministry of Defence agreed to pay
£2.83-million ($4.5-million) in compensation to the family of Mousa and
nine other men. The case also led to rare prosecutions of British soldiers in
connection with ill-treatment. However only one person, Corporal Donald Payne,
was convicted, after pleading guilty to the war crime of inhumane treatment,
and sentenced to one-year imprisonment. The military court threw out all other
charges against six other soldiers, including Payne's commanding officer.
In July 2009, the United Kingdom launched a public inquiry into Mousa's
death, the failure of the criminal investigation and prosecution, and the
British military's treatment of Iraqi detainees, including how
interrogation techniques previously banned by the UK in 1972 resurfaced in
Iraq. See "Iraqis to get £3m in MoD damages," BBC, July
10, 2008, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7500204.stm
(accessed November 8, 2010), and ""Iraqi eyewitnesses: Mistreatment
by UK troops," BBC, November 5, 2010, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-11696329
(accessed November 8, 2010).

[232]
Constitution, art. 130. See also Walter Pincus, "There is Corruption in
Iraq," Washington Post, June 25, 2007 (noting the reinstatement of
the provision by prime ministers 'Ayad Allawi and Ibrahim
al-Ja'afari, and its continued use under Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki).

[240]
The report documented 326 allegations of torture at MOI facilities, 152 cases
at MOD facilities, 14 cases at Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs (MOLSA)
facilities, one case at MOJ facilities, and 12 in Peshmerga facilities in the
Kurdistan region in 2009.

[251]
According to Iraq's submission to the 2010 Universal Periodic Review,
authorities have referred to the courts 724 cases of abuse uncovered by the
Ministry of Human Rights between 2007 and 2009. "National report
submitted in accordance with paragraph 15 (A) of the annex to Human Rights
Council Resolution 5/1," Government of Iraq submission to the Universal
Periodic Review, January 18, 2010, A/HRC/WG.6/7/IRQ/,1http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G09/173/37/PDF/G0917337.pdf?OpenElement
(accessed December 22).

[252]Following
exposure of the secret prison, Iraqi authorities announced on April 23 that
they had detained three officers of the military unit that ran the facility to
interrogate them. As of October, authorities had not announced any charges.
Khalid al-Ansary, "Iraq Closes Secret Prison, Arrests 3 Officers,"
Reuters, April 23, 2010, http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LDE63M0W8.htm
(accessed September 11, 2011).

[259]In
June 2009, the Official Gazette published legislation that Iraq's
parliament passed in 2008 to ratify the Convention. However, as of August 2010,
the Iraqi government had not deposited the registration of the ratification at
the secretariat of the UN.

[260]See,
for example, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, art. 37(a).

[261]Convention
against Torture, art. 15. The only exception is a statement against a person
accused of torture as evidence that

See also Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre,
"Little new displacement but around 2.8 million Iraqis remain internally
displaced," March, 2010. IDMC maintains an internet database on situation
of internal displacement in Iraq available at http://www.internal-displacement.org/countries/iraq
(accessed September 11, 2010).

[277]The
Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement (the Guiding Principles), adopted
in September 1998 by the UN General Assembly, reflect international
humanitarian law as well as human rights law, and provide a consolidated set of
international standards governing the treatment of the internally displaced.
Although not a binding instrument, the Guiding Principles are based on
international laws that bind states, and they have acquired authority and
standing in the international community.

[281]
In November, 2009, Human Rights Watch released On Vulnerable Ground, a
report documenting attacks by Sunni Arab extremist groups targeting Yazidis,
Shabaks, and Assyrian Christians, and intimidation by KRG forces against
minority political and civic associations in the disputed territories of
northern Iraq. This chapter updates the findings of the 2009 report, includes
recent developments in other parts of Iraq, and has a new section on the plight
of the Sabian Mandaeans. See Human Rights Watch, On Vulnerable Ground:
Violence Against Minority Communities in Nineveh Province's Disputed
Territories, November 2009, http://www.hrw.org/en/node/86357.

[294]Close
to two-thirds of Iraqi Christians are Chaldeans (an Eastern rite of the
Catholic Church), and close to one-third are Assyrians (Church of the East).
The remainder of Iraqi Christians variously follow the Syrian Orthodox,
Armenian Orthodox, Armenian Catholic (an Eastern rite of the Catholic Church),
Anglican, or other Protestant faiths.

[295]According
to the Christian and Other Religions Endowment Bureau in Iraq, approximately 95
percent of the country's alcohol shops have closed following attacks and
threats by Islamic extremists. See Preti Taneja, Minority Rights Group
International, "Assimilation, Exodus, Eradication: Iraq's minority
communities since 2003," February 11, 2007, http://www.minorityrights.org/2802/reports/assimilation-exodus-eradication-iraqs-minority-communities-since-2003-arabic-edition.html
(accessed September 11, 2010).

[323]While
all the persons with disabilities interviewed in this chapter have
conflict-related disabilities, there are also thousands of Iraqis who are born
with or acquire disabilities because of disease or non-war related injuries.

[327]
The Iraqi Alliance of Disability Organizations estimates three million persons
with disabilities live in the country. Iraq's health ministry reportedly
put the number at between one million and three million: Aseel Kami, "Up
to 10 percent of Iraqis disabled by war, sanctions," Reuters, January 21,
2010,

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8062563.stm
(accessed September 11, 2010). Mental disability, also referred to as
psycho-social disability, relates to the interaction between psychological
differences and social/cultural limits for behavior as well as the stigma that
society attaches to persons with mental impairments. World Network of Users and
Survivors of Psychiatry, Manual on Implementation of the Convention on the
Rights of Persons with Disabilities, p. 9 http://www.chrusp.org/home/resources (accessed
on January 5, 2011).

[353]
See UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, "Substantive
Issues Arising in the Implementation of the International Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights," General Comment No. 14, The Right to the
Highest Attainable Standard of Health, E/C.12/2000/4 (2000).

[354]Women's
Commission for Refugee Women and Children, "Disabilities Among Refugees
and Conflict-Affected Populations," June 2008.

[361]Declaration
on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on
Religion or Belief, G.A. res. 36/55, 36 U.N. GAOR Supp. (N0. 51) at 171, U.N.
Doc. A/36/684 (1981), art. 1.